For those of you who don’t know, Naomi Osaka is a 20-year-old professional tennis player from Japan.

Ever since she turned pro in 2013, she has played women who were formerly ranked number one in the world, including Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki, Angelique Kerber, Karolína Plíšková, and Maria Sharapova, as well as the current number one, Simona Halep. She has also played women who have been ranked regularly in the top 20.

Did she win against all of them? No, of course not.

After she lost to Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2017 and defeated Maria at the BNP Paribas Open earlier this year, she had only one more woman she wanted to play. “Now I’m just waiting to play Serena,” she said.

Naomi got her chance back in March. She beat Serena Williams in the first round of the Miami Open.

Yet it was during the US Open that she climbed her way to the very top and absolutely smashed it, making history and proving that she’s an up-and-coming, one-of-a-kind talent that shouldn’t be ignored.

Naomi played Aliaksandra Sasnovich without losing a single game; she won 6-0, 6-0, a perfect match in women’s tennis. In the quarterfinals, she beat Lesia Tsurenko in under an hour, losing just 2 games. In the semifinals (her first at a major tournament), she defeated Madison Keys in straight sets. She became the first Japanese woman to reach a Grand Slam final.

Last night, in that final, Naomi faced Serena again and beat her again, too, doing so in straight sets. With her victory, Naomi became the first Japanese player–male or female–to win a Grand Slam singles tournament. Today, she rose in the ranks and is now number 7 in the world for women’s tennis.

However, any of the news I’ve read regarding the final focuses on Serena, whether she’s painted as the hero or the villain for what happened. We can point a finger of blame at her, her coach, the chair umpire, and even the crowd in attendance for all of their actions. We can argue all day about everything that transpired, but none of those people should be held up on a pedestal.

The only person that should be praised here, without question, is Naomi.

Naomi was composed, defeating Serena 6-2, 6-4 and taking every match interruption in stride. Serena broke a racquet and berated the chair umpire, and Naomi remained poised. She even began to make mistakes late in the match, and the crowd started to cheer in favor of Serena, but regardless, she kept her nerves in check and fought back.

You know what Naomi did after such a well-earned victory? During the trophy ceremony, she cried as the crowd booed. She apologized to them, since it “wasn’t the result they wanted.” She barely smiled as she hoisted the trophy.

I hope that Naomi doesn’t regret a thing. I hope that she gets to celebrate her win properly and feel good about it. She has so much to be proud of, and she played tennis the way the game ought to be played: with a cool head, yet a lot of spirit. Congratulations to her for a much-deserved win! I look forward to watching her play in the future. I’m sure that this won’t be her last, or even her best, major tournament appearance, not by a long shot.