Naomi Osaka reflects on tearful news conference: ‘I was wondering why I was so affected’
break down into tears after briefly stepping away during an exchange with reporters.
“Honestly, I was thinking about this since the last time I sat here,” Osaka said at a separate news conference Wednesday after defeating Coco Gauff 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Western Southern Open in Mason, Ohio.
“I was wondering why I was so affected, I guess. Like what made me not want to do media in the first place. And then I was thinking, I was wondering if I was scared because sometimes I would see headlines of players losing and then the headline the next day would be like ‘a collapse’ or ‘they’re not that great anymore.’
“So then 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. I’m not sure when along the way I started desensitizing that. It started not being an accomplishment for me. So I felt like I was very ungrateful on that fact.”
Osaka, who won the Australian Open in February, withdrew from the French Open before her second-round match and skipped Wimbledon entirely as she cited a need for a mental health break. She was eliminated in the round of 16 at the Tokyo Olympics after lighting the Olympic cauldron in her native Japan.
Speaking on Zoom to reporters Monday, Osaka was asked by columnist Paul Daugherty from ihe Cincinnati Enquirer about her relationship with the media. The question began: “You are not crazy about dealing with us, especially in this format. Yet you have a lot of outside interests that are served by having a media platform. I guess my question is, how do you balance the two?”