July 25, (THEWILL) – In her return to competitive tennis after withdrawing from the French Open and sitting out Wimbledon to focus on her mental health, Naomi Osaka says she’s in a better place as she also conceded to talking to reporters again.
In post-match comments to the Press, she said: “More than anything else, I’m just focused on playing tennis. The Olympics has been a dream of mine since I was a kid, so I feel like the break that I took was very needed. I feel definitely a little bit refreshed, and I’m happy again.”
Osaka brushed aside China’s Zheng Saisai to advance to the second round with a 6-1, 6-4 win. It was the Japanese player’s first match since withdrawing at Roland Garros over the tournament’s media policy and the threat of defaulting for boycotting press conferences.
As THEWILL reported, she had expressed her wish to avoid speaking to reporters at the event because of mental health concerns and was fined by Roland Garros for skipping out of her media responsibilities after her first round win.
At the threat from French Open, in a joint statement with the other three Slams, of potential disqualification from the event, Osaka withdrew rather than continuing the controversy. She later withdrew from Wimbledon as well with the goal of focusing on herself.
The second ranked tennis player in the world said: “There’s nothing wrong with my body; I just felt really nervous. I haven’t played since France, so there were definitely some things that I did a bit wrong, but I think I can improve in the matches that I continue playing.”
With the upset elimination of tennis world number one and top seed at the Tokyo Games, Ashleigh Barty, Osaka will now be considered the favourite for the gold medal in the tennis event at her home country, which will be her first. She continues on track towards that with a Round Two game against Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
