Teary Osaka reveals Garcia loss will hurt for “very, very long time”
The Japanese spoke openly after her exit from the Miami Open on Sunday
This time last year, Naomi Osaka was heavily pregnant with her first child. Now, the former world No 1 is already back playing on the WTA Tour, claiming two top 20 wins in the past fortnight.
Despite this success, Osaka says her loss to Caroline Garcia in the third round of the Miami Open will be something that stays with her for a long time.
“It’s extremely frustrating, and it’s probably going to sit with me for a very, very long time,” Osaka revealed.
When asked what she takes away the tournament as a whole, Osaka responded:
“That’s a tough question right now, because I know I’m pretty hard on myself. What do I take away from this tournament? I think I definitely played my best match against Elina. But right now I’m not thinking too positively about myself. I definitely wanted to be better here.”
Osaka knocked out No 15 seed Elina Svitolina earlier this week, defeating the Ukrainian 6-2, 7-6 (5). However, she was unable to repeat her heroics against Garica, going down 7-6 (4), 7-5.
There were some positives from the loss, however, as Osaka herself outlined.
“The loss today is much different from the loss in Indian Wells and I have to take that as a positive,” reflected Osaka. “I feel like to be realistic, I’m like eight months after having a baby. I know normally I want to go to the quarters and the semis and the finals, but I’m just thinking about every match that I play as progress.”
“I feel a little disappointed because I couldn’t play many more matches in front of the fans, but it will be nice to be back next year.”
