PARIS (AP) — Naomi Osaka still wore the pink accessories in her hair inspired by “sakura” — cherry blossoms — and there were streaks on her cheeks where tears had rolled, when she sat down for a French Open news conference after her first-round loss to Paula Badosa on Monday.
Osaka’s red eyes welled as she answered a few questions before needing a break and briefly leaving the interview room following the 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-4 exit against the 10th-seeded Badosa.
“As time goes on, I feel like I should be doing better. But also — I kind of talked about this before, maybe a couple years ago, or maybe recently, I’m not sure — I hate disappointing people,” said Osaka, who owns four Grand Slam trophies from the hard courts of the U.S. Open and Australian Open but never has been past the third round on the red clay of Roland-Garros.
Then, referring to her current coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who used to work with Serena Williams, Osaka said: “He goes from working with, like, the greatest player ever to, like, ‘What the (expletive) is this?’ You know what I mean? Sorry for cursing. I hope I don’t get fined.”
Osaka, who was born in Japan and moved to the United States as a young child, was undone Monday by 54 unforced errors. That was twice as many as Badosa, whose best showing at a major was a semifinal run at the Australian Open in January and who reached the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros in 2021.
After taking the opening set, Osaka was treated by a trainer for hand blisters and also took time to clip her sakura-themed fingernails on the sideline.
She attributed the blisters, which also bothered her at the Italian Open this month, to “the friction of clay, because I don’t have blisters on any other surface.”
Osaka’s powerful serves and groundstrokes are dulled by the clay, and that showed against Badosa. Osaka was broken five times and finished with nearly as many double-faults, five, as aces, seven.
Once ranked No. 1 and currently No. 49, Osaka withdrew from the French Open in 2021 before her second-round match, explaining that she experiences “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealing she had dealt with depression. She then took multiple mental health breaks away from the tour.
She helped usher in a change in the way athletes, sports fans and society at large understood the importance of mental health.
A year ago at Roland-Garros, Osaka played one of her best matches since returning to action after becoming a mother, coming within a point of upsetting eventual tournament champion Iga Swiatek.
On Monday, after taking a break from questions, she returned to field one query from a Japanese journalist with an eye to the next major tournament, Wimbledon, which begins on grass on June 30.
“I don’t necessarily know my grass-season schedule right now,” Osaka said. “I wasn’t really expecting to lose in the first round.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
