Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Naomi Osaka

Press Conference

C. OSORIO/N. Osaka

6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Naomi, I guess give us your thoughts on the match tonight.

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, I mean, I don't think it was too good on my end, but I'm really honestly just happy that they let me play on Stadium 1 again, and it was just really good to get the experience to play another night match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Tough one. Physically you're fine? That wasn't any issue in the match tonight? I guess that would be my first question. The second one was, is this a situation where it's just sort of like you haven't played a match in, what, six weeks or something like that so it was just only so sharp that you can be from practice?

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, definitely. I think firstly, I'm not injured. I feel really good, which is, I guess, a positive to take out of this.

Then secondly, yeah, it feels really weird, because I do think I did well in Australia. It feels like a little bit of a stopping/starting again. So I think it would have been really helpful to play more matches coming into this tournament, but obviously I couldn't.

The same thing kind of goes with my tennis today. Like, there were certain things that felt extremely off, because I could only start practice serving after a certain amount of time and stuff like that. So I think given the situation, it wasn't that terrible, but, like, I would have liked to win and continue playing the tournament.

Q. Do you think the fact that tennis is pretty much exclusively, outside of the finals, single-elimination tournaments makes it difficult for players who've been away for a minute to come back and get those matches under their belts, like Petra Kvitova this morning as well? Would you like to see more alternative tournament structures or is it also a bad feeling to have to get back on the court the next day after a defeat?

NAOMI OSAKA: I think from my end, I find it more fun to get back on the court after a loss, just because I feel like I've learned so much from the loss, and it's kind of, like, I can't wait to apply it sort of thing.

But I've just grown up with tennis having the same tournament structure the entire time. It would be kind of interesting for it to change, but I don't know. I've just grown so accustomed to it.

Q. Miami next?

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah.

Q. What has been sort of the hardest thing about this layoff, coming as it did, when you were playing so well in Australia? In terms of the last couple weeks, did you feel like you had picked up in practice just where you had left off, or is that impossible to do when you have an injury like the one you had?

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, I mean, I would say the hardest thing is, like, feeling like I could have done extremely well in the Australian Open, and then just having to, I guess, get into the repetition of practicing again and trying to get stronger for tournaments like this one and then not doing well here, it kind of, I don't know, it sucks, but, like, I feel like I'm also used to it from last year.

Like, when I think about last year, I feel completely fine right now, because I know that, I don't know, it just feels like a little bump in the road. I'll be back in Miami, and hopefully I'll have way more serve practice under my belt and things like that.

(Naomi's answers to questions in Japanese.)

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, I mean, time's a blur after Australia, but I think I wasn't allowed to play for, like, a week or two maybe. Then after that, I wasn't allowed to serve for, like, another week.

Then we had, like, this process of I could serve but it was only like 50% for these couple of days and then 60 and then 70.

Yeah, I honestly don't even know what week it is right now. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like -- I mean, I don't know. It's weird. Like, today I don't feel like I played well at all, but I still felt like I had so many chances to be in the match.

Like, obviously in the last game, I had three breakpoints, which was kind of terrible that I didn't convert any. But, like, speaking on points like that, I think I am probably the type of player that's more dominant in points. That's how I guess I've been able to play so well, and hopefully continue to play well in the future.

But there are just certain situations where I felt like even if I tried to push the ball, it would fly or it would go out or it would go in the net, so it just gave me a lot of -- not a good feeling whenever I would try to hit the balls that I feel like would normally go in.

You know me. I honestly don't even know if they would change my string tension. I'm not too sensitive on that (smiling).

I feel like it's a hard court, so whatever, if it's faster or it's slower. I also haven't, I guess, played too well here in a long time. So I think if it was, like, the US Open or something I would be able to tell you but not this one.