Naomi Osaka: When I was younger I used to want a lot of expensive stuff
In an interview with Tennis Head Net, Naomi Osaka commented on her mindset changed over the years. The Japanese, who is one of the richest active tennis players on Tour, said: "When I was younger I used to want a lot of expensive stuff, but now I’m just happy if I have basic things."
On her origins, she added: "I was growing up my mum always worked. She was working a lot because my dad was always with us. He was the one who was our coach. She would leave for work at four in the morning. I always wanted her to retire, and now that she has I feel very happy. I want to keep doing better to help her live her best life. My mum sacrificed a lot. We would go to tournaments and she would stay at home and work because someone had to pay for the flights and stuff. I’m very grateful for everything she’s done and I can only hope that what I’m doing now can repay her in some way.”
On how she deals with the Japanese language, Osaka added: “I understand everything, it’s just the speaking part. I don’t feel comfortable speaking to people I don’t know. My Japanese grammar is [poor] and I don’t really want to speak unless it’s perfect. At the same time, that’s sort of hindered me, because now I don’t speak [Japanese] at all. I’m just trying to use the press as practice.”
She concluded: “The only person that I told about my nerves was my sister. I called her in the morning and then I called her at lunchtime and then I called her three minutes before I was supposed to walk on the court. She was just talking about random stuff because she was trying to get me to loosen up. And it did work because for that split-second I did forget that I was about to play in the final.”
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2MjlCal
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