Naomi Osaka shares how pressure of being No. 1 influences her
Naomi Osaka lost to Su-Wei Hsieh in the Miami Open third round. The Japanese player's world No. 1 ranking position is not at risk and in a press conference the Japanese showed her disappointment for the loss. Osaka was leading a set and a break. "I just think I got too emotional, which is something I did the last match, too. I'm not really sure why this is happening, but it's kind of unusual for me I think a little bit. But, yeah, I think in that moment I got ahead of myself, but all the other times it was pretty fine. Like, I knew it was going to be a tough match playing her", said the 21-year-old, who struggled with handling Hsieh's gamestyle: "I was hitting down the line on balls I was sure she would go cross-court. Yeah, I definitely thought she was being unpredictable."
On how she copes with emotions and expectations, Osaka added: "Of course I want to win every match I play. I feel like I've dealt with the stress of people asking me to do I have pressure because I have the No. 1 next to my name. I thought I was doing fine with that, but I guess I'm not. I think more about winning now compared to the matches before where I didn't necessarily think that was the case. Off-court stuff, I'm pretty fine I feel like. I thought my serve was working well for a while. I thought I was able to mix it up quite well. She's a bit unusual because it's tough to know which side she likes to return more on. Like, sometimes I would think it's the forehand side, but then she would just start learning more on the ball. I think just figuring that out as the match went on, it was a little bit tough for me. I think she was returning well. It was hard for me because I count on my serve a lot."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2CEJNuq
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