Naomi Osaka, Billie Jean King and other tennis stars react to Super Bowl LVI

Sunday night saw the unfolding of Super Bowl LVI, and apart from Americans there were millions of people elsewhere too who were hooked on to the action. A bunch of tennis stars - including Naomi Osaka, Billie Jean King and Shelby Rogers - tuned in as well, and they couldn't contain their excitement at the entertainment on show.

Played on the second Sunday of February, the Super Bowl is the annual playoff championship game of the National Football League (NFL) in the United States. And the Los Angeles Rams ended up winning Super Bowl LVI after a nail-biting finish against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals had the lead after the end of the third quarter but the Rams edged ahead with the help of a final stop by Joe Burrow, giving them a 23-20 win.

THE LOS ANGELES RAMS ARE SUPER BOWL CHAMPS! https://t.co/1cx2f8s6nm

12-time Grand Slam winner Billie Jean King was present at the venue, and even performed the coin flip at the start of the match. King later posted a picture of the Super Bowl coin on her Twitter handle.

"My SuperBowlLVI Coin, No. 70 of 10,000," the American tweeted.

.@BillieJeanKing does the coin flip honors for #SBLVI!

📺: #SBLVI on NBC
📱: bit.ly/3oGmfNC https://t.co/bzoOFsLmUd

My #SuperBowlLVI Coin, No. 70 of 10,000.

#SuperBowl https://t.co/kplL3GmxOw

Former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka also watched the Super Bowl live as a spectator, and shared visuals of the opening ceremony on her Instagram stories.

"Iconic," Osaka captioned one of the stories.

A screenshot of Naomi Osaka's Instagram stories

Although American tennis stars Madison Keys and Shelby Rogers couldn't attend the event live, they watched it at their respective homes and seemed to have enjoyed it a lot. While Keys found the match absolutely "phenomenal", Rogers exclaimed "how good was that" in response to the finish.

That was phenomenal #HalfTimeShow

Wow. How good was that?! 💯 #HalfTimeShow

Naomi Osaka confirms participation at Indian Wells 2022

Naomi Osaka had a disappointing campaign at the 2022 Australian Open as she crashed out in the third round. Having entered the tournament as the defending champion, the Japanese lost to Amanda Anisimova 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5).

Osaka revealed in one of her recent Instagram stories that she will next play at Indian Wells, which hosts a WTA 1000 tournament that will kick off on 7 March. The World No. 82 didn't take part at Indian Wells last year, since she was taking a break from tennis at the time.

Osaka is a former champion at Indian Wells, having lifted the trophy there back in 2018.

@LlaaniiMaan 🇯🇵 Japan
🏆 @naomiosaka
📸 Indian Wells 2018 https://t.co/xbYUJVqiwB