Paris-Naomi Osaka still wore pink accessories in his hair inspired by “Sakura”, Cerezo Flores, and there were stripes on the cheeks where tears had shot, when he sat down for a press conference from the France Open after his first defeat against Paula Badosa on Monday.
Osaka’s red eyes sprouted while answering some questions before needing a break and briefly leave the interview room after exit 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-4 against the tenth sowed Badosa.
“As time passes, I feel that it should be better. But also, I talked about this before, maybe a couple of years ago, or maybe recently, I am not sure, I hate disappointing people,” said Osaka, owner of four Grand Slam trophies of the hard courts of the United States Open and the Australian Open, but the third round has never passed in the Clay Roland-Garros Red.
Then, referring to his current coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who used to work with Serena Williams, Osaka said: “He goes from working with the best player who ever, as, ‘What is the (improper)?’ Do you know what I mean?
Osaka, who was born in Japan and moved to the United States as a child, got rid of Monday for 54 non -forced errors. That was the double that Badosa, whose best performance in a specialization was a career in the semifinal at the Australian Open in January and that reached the quarterfinals in Roland-Garros in 2021.
After taking the opening set, Osaka was treated by a coach for manual ampoules and also took the time to cut his Sakura theme nails on the lateral line.
She attributed the blisters, which also bother her at the Italian Open this month, to “the friction of the clay, because I have no blisters on any other surface.”
Osaka’s powerful services and dumps of land are overshadowed by clay, and that was against Badase. Osaka broke five times and ended with almost so many double fouls, five, like Aces, seven.
Once he held number 1 and currently No. 49, Osaka retired from the France Open in 2021 before his second round party, explaining that he experiences “great waves of anxiety” before speaking with the media and revealing that he had dealt with the depression. Then he took multiple mental health breaks from the tour.
She helped mark the change of a change in the way athletes, sport fans and society in general understood the importance of mental health.
A year ago in Roland-Garros, Osaka played one of his best games since he returned to action after becoming a mother, reaching a point of altering the eventual champion of the IGA Swiatek tournament.
On Monday, after taking a break from the questions, he returned to the field of a consultation of a Japanese journalist with one eye to the next important tournament, Wimbledon, who begins in the grass on June 30.
“I don’t necessarily know my grass season schedule at this time,” said Osaka. “I really didn’t expect to lose in the first round.”
