After her loss to Elise Mertens in straight sets at Indian Wells, Naomi Osaka is attempting to be easy on herself.
Osaka talked about how her viewpoint has changed since returning from maternity leave after being defeated by WTA No. 28 5-7 4-6 in the third round last night.
According to Osaka, she returned to tennis to win more Grand Slams rather than to try to climb the rankings to the top. She expressed her thoughts in a recent interview and said: “I wonder how you define success or how you will define success from this perspective. Is it only the No. 1 Grand Slam title? You know you can expect that; you have a right to expect that from yourself, or is there another definition of success that might fit? Honestly, I’m not chasing the No. 1 spot right now. Like, that’s such a if I could get there in, like, three years, or, I don’t even know what’s going to happen in that time, but that was never really the reason I came back.”
The former world number one stated that she was proud of her commitment. She further added: “I’m just trying not to be too hard on myself right now, but I feel like in some ways I improved a lot from Doha. I wanted to win more slams. That’s why I came back. But I think I determine success right now just by the effort that I put in, and I feel like today I don’t think I played well at all, but I tried every point. I think before I was pregnant, there were a couple of matches that I didn’t try as hard as I tried today, and I feel like I can walk off the court knowing that, although I’m sad about the loss, I know that I tried every possible way to get back in the match. I guess that’s how I determine success right now.”
Naomi Osaka says she didn’t come back to tennis to chase the #1 ranking, she came back to win more Grand Slams
“I wonder how you define success or how you will define success in this second career, if you will. Is it only No. 1, Grand Slam titles? | know you can expect that, you… pic.twitter.com/fTX7cheVFX
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) March 12, 2024
Naomi Osaka in 2024
LWLWLWLLWL At the moment ranked no.287, the Japanese played her last match on the 11th of March when she lost to world no.28 Elise Mertens 7-5 6-4 in the 3rd round in Indian Wells (draw).
Until now, during this year Naomi has achieved an overall 5-5 match record.
Naomi Osaka |
| Embed from Getty Images |
