Her inexperience at making victory speeches showed.
After nervously hesitating in ticking off thank-yous, Osaka said, "This is probably going to be the worst acceptance speech of all time."
She singled out Kasatkina. "I would like to thank Dasha for being super nice and also being a really cool person to play against," Osaka said. "I'm pretty sure we're going to play a lot of finals again."
Osaka thanked her Haiti-born father and Japan-born mother, who weren't on hand. She moved to the US as a 3-year-old and holds dual citizenship. She lives and trains in South Florida.
Naomi Osaka had a memorable post-match presentation at Indian Wells.
Photo: AP
Osaka visibly flinched when streamers were shot off. She stepped gingerly toward the crystal trophy resting on a stand and delicately placed her hands on each side of it. She shook her head in declining to pick up the heavy prize.
"I think that's it," she told the crowd.
Osaka's victory capped a run that included beating two-time winner Maria Sharapova, world No.5 Karolina Pliskova and top-ranked Simona Halep during the two-week tournament. She dropped one set in seven matches.
The Japan-born Osaka will rise to a career-high No.22 in Monday's WTA Tour rankings.
In a match-up of 20-year-old rising stars, Osaka needed just 70 minutes to dispatch No.19 Kasatkina, who had an equally impressive showing in the desert.
Osaka closed out the biggest win of her career with a backhand winner that ticked the baseline.
She earned $US1,340,860 ($A1.9 million) for the victory, nearly double her career winnings of $1,483,053. She is the first unseeded winner since Kim Clijsters in 2005 and the second-youngest since Ana Ivanovic in 2008.
AP
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