Last year, Naomi Osaka hit the headlines for the wrong reasons after refusing to attend press conferences after losing. Recently, Naomi talked about her decision to preserve her mental health, especially after losing.
“One of the most difficult parts was, directly following a defeat, to have to go into the press room and talk to the media, answering questions about why I played poorly or what I could have done better, and to be asked, ‘How does it feel?’ to have just lost the match,” said Naomi.
“None of those conversations are enjoyable, but especially not on the heels of a loss. It’s like pouring salt into a wound. The sheer weight of the outcome of a match made me realize I needed to take a step back and create a new metric for success, as hyper-fixating on wins and losses was damaging to my mental health as well as to my love of the game,” she added.
Naomi Osaka is not set to play in any tournaments before the Australian Open as of right now.
Naomi Osaka in 2022
Ranked no.42, the Japanese played her last match on the 20th of September when she had to retire when playing against world no.53 Daria Gavrilova in the 1st round and the scoreline was 1-0 .
Until now, during this year the Japanese has a compiled 14-9 record. Naomi Osaka’s best result of this season was reaching the final in Miami.
Osaka has scheduled to compete next in Australian Open (Australian Open). She will start the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 28th of January.
