Naomi Osaka is still inspired by her famous fan and friend Kobe Bryant

Roll out caught up with international tennis star Naomi Osaka, four-time Grand Slam and two-time US Open champion, to reflect on the unforgettable moment when the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant watched her play from her player’s box at the 2019 US Open.

“I mean, I guess I kind of played on the same court today,” Osaka replied when asked about Bryant's visit five years ago. That day, she wore a double-sided Kobe Bryant jersey with No. 8 on the front and No. 24 on the back in a doubles exhibition match last week and at yesterday's press conference following her upset first-round win over No. 10 Jeļena Ostapenko (6-3, 6-2).

“Louis Armstrong [Stadium] was the court, he came and watched my game,” recalled the athlete, entrepreneur and mother of one. “I honestly remember being a little bit incredulous that he had come especially to watch my game. Feeling that support was just incredible. I think I always wear Kobe jerseys after games and practices because I feel like I can carry his spirit with me a little bit.”

Roll out wrote about Bryant's US Open visit five years ago.

“It's just funny to me,” Osaka said at the time, when she was 21. “You know, last year compared to this year, there's no way Kobe is sitting in my box. Yeah, Kaepernick too. It's just crazy who you meet in life.”

After winning her first Grand Slam title at the age of 20 by defeating Serena Williams at the 2018 US Open – and then winning the Australian Open at the beginning of 2019 – Osaka was an international star by the summer of 2019 and was in a relationship with Bryant.

“Everyone knows that Kobe gives me real life advice,” she said five years ago. “He's someone I look up to as an athlete and also as a person. I'm really grateful to even have the opportunity to talk to him and stuff.”

Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others tragically died less than five months later, on January 26, 2020, in a helicopter crash in California.

Osaka will face Karolína Muchová in her second-round match at the US Open on August 29.