Naomi Osaka talks about the crises in Haiti and Afghanistan, says she has been "ungrateful" about her privileges
After a disappointing few months, including a shock early exit at the Tokyo Olympics, Naomi Osaka returned to winning ways at the 2021 Western & Southern Open on Wednesday. The Japanese registered a hard-fought three-set win over America's Coco Gauff in Cincinnati to move to the third round of the tournament.
That should come as a major boost to the morale of Naomi Osaka, who broke down at being asked a sensitive question during her pre-tournament press conference. Osaka was in a much better state of mind during her presser on Wednesday, where she spoke about the privilege of being able to do what she does while the world was going through turmoil.
When asked what her mindset was like during the match against Gauff, Osaka mentioned the havoc raised by the recent earthquake in Haiti and also spared a thought for the crisis in Afghanistan.
"Guess seeing the state of the world, like how everything is in Haiti, how everything is in Afghanistan right now, is definitely really crazy," Naomi Osaka said. "For me to just be hitting a tennis ball in the United States right now and have people come and watch me play is, I don't know, like I would want to be myself in this situation rather than anyone else in the world."
Naomi Osaka also reflected on her tearful press conference from a day earlier, and claimed that her perspective has changed since then. The World No. 2 pointed out that the recent global events have reminded her how lucky she is to be a professional athlete in a safe environment, and admitted that she hasn't always been grateful about that.
"I was thinking me waking up every day, for me, I should feel like I'm winning. You know, like the choice to go out there and play, to go see fans that people come out and watch me play, that itself is an accomplishment," Osaka said. " And I'm not sure when along the way I started desensitizing that. Like it started not being like an accomplishment for me. So I felt like I was very ungrateful on that fact."
"Coco Gauff is not my favorite player to play" - Naomi Osaka
Coming off a tough spell of form and emotional state can be difficult even for the biggest of champions. That is what Naomi Osaka experienced as she was given a laborious opening match in Cincinnati against an opponent who was mature well beyond her years.
Osaka had played Gauff twice before, with the head-to-head being 1-1. The then 15-year-old American had beaten Osaka at the 2020 Australian Open - a tournament where the Japanese was the defending champion.
Osaka has always recognized Gauff's talent and mental strength, and on Wednesday she admitted that the 17-year-old prodidy was not her favorite opponent to play against.
"I think coming off Tokyo (the Olympics), coming here and playing her (Gauff) as my first opponent, you know, she's not really my favorite player to play. Like mentally I think it's the most straining to play against her," Naomi Osaka said.
Osaka was quick to also mention that she thinks very highly of Gauff as a person, The 23-year-old revealed that the American sent her messages of support after her withdrawals from Roland Garros and Wimbledon, a phase when Osaka was going through immense mental distress.
"I think as a person she's really amazing. She's super lovely. Actually, when I took time off from the French and Wimbledon, she sent me really nice messages. I was very appreciative of that," Osaka said about Gauff.
Upon being asked about the budding rivalry between the two players on the tennis court, Osaka sounded optimistic that the two would play many more classic matches in the future. She even expressed hope that they could potentially emulate the famed rivalry between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
"I'm excited when I hear that it's a rivalry. Like I think rivalries build the sport, like Federer/Nadal definitely did amazing things for tennis, so, yeah, it would be amazing to have something like that on the woman's side."
Naomi Osaka also expressed satisfaction at how her first serve pulled her through the second-round match against Coco Gauff, and explained why she kept adjusting her return position throughout the match.
"I felt like today the match was very serve-reliant, so I'm very happy that my first serve didn't let me down," Osaka said. "I feel like this match I changed my return position quite a lot, and mainly I wanted to be very close in, but she had a really good second serve, so I felt like I had to keep switching around. So that's what that was."
Naomi Osaka will play Swiss player Jil Teichmann in the next round, as she hopes to make a statement ahead of her title defense at the upcoming US Open.