Tennis player Naomi Osaka.[Credit/ft.com]
Osaka lost in the third round of the women’s singles and thus there is no gold medal hope for her. Marketa graciously earned a straight-set win against the world number two.
Naomi undoubtedly suffered a surprise exit in her home Olympics. She had the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron in the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
The tennis sensation has for a time been one of the faces of the Games in Japan but this time she did not perform as many expected.
Osaka who has been celebrated for being a four-time Grand Slam champion, lost 6-1 6-4 to Marketa. Marketa is ranked as the world number 42.
On to her feedback after the loss, this is what Osaka had to say;
“I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this,” said Naomi. “I think it is maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year it was a bit much.”
However, Naomi Osaka has had a successful career before and she has bagged several championships, she is the reigning US Open and Australian Open Champion.
Additionally, out of the previous 26 matches that she had, she successfully won a whopping 25 of them on a hard court.
The tennis star competed at the Tokyo Olympics since she withdrew from the French Open in June. That was when she disclosed that she had suffered a severe depression since she won her first Grand Slam title in the year 2018.
She continued to express her views out of her defeat. Osaka expressed confidence that she was glad about how she played at the Olympics.
“I think I’m glad about how I played, with taking that break that I had,” she said. I’ve taken long breaks before and I’ve managed to do well.”
Continuation
Tennis player Naomi Osaka.[Credit/usatoday.com]
“I feel like my attitude wasn’t that great because I don’t really know how to cope with that pressure so that’s the best that I could have done in this situation.”
In her previous two matches, Osaka had done really well, especially at the match against Viktorija Golubic on Monday.
The matches were being held at the Ariake Tennis Park.
Vondrousova had all attention and determination to the tournament and her drop shots were a force to reckon with. She as well had big serves and powerful groundstrokes. She also was good at the defending part.
It is believed that the mental health issue with Osaka that resulted in the eight-week break had a lot to do with her performance this time around.
She had previously outshined the Wimbledon Champion Ashleigh Barty and thus hopes were high that she would claim the biggest title.
The 22 years old Marketa Vondrousova thus became the first player through to the quarter-finals. Therefore, she will be competing against either Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska or Spain’s Paula Badosa.
It was indeed a shock exit for Naomi Osaka as she had hoped to mark the first Japanese tennis player to bag an Olympic gold medal.
In the first set, Osaka faced a tough game from Marketa, while she started fairly well in the second set.
The second set gave her an opportunity to serve but the winner but Vondrousova was quick to hand it back. Osaka saved two match points at 5-4 but unfortunately, the game did not end in her favour.
Osaka had previously set for the gold-medal bid but unfortunately, she was faced with 32 unforced errors in a rusty performance against former French Open finalist Vondrousova.
Therefore, with the exit of Osaka, she became the second top player to exit after the Australian top seed Ashleigh Barty.
As a result of that, the women’s singles is left draw wide open, with the Ukrainian fourth seed Elina Svitolina being the remaining highest-ranked player.
Osaka’s short biography
Naomi is a Japanese professional tennis player, born October 16, 1997. She has been ranked No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles.
She is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion and is the reigning champion at the US Open and the Australian Open.
Osaka has seven titles on the WTA Tour which also include two at the Premier Mandatory level.
At the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, Osaka won her first two Grand Slam singles titles in back-to-back Grand Slam tournaments. She is the first player to achieve this feat since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.
Additionally, she also became the first woman to win successive Grand Slam singles titles since Serena Williams in 2015.
Osaka rose to prominence at age 16 when she defeated former US Open champion Samantha Stosur in her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 Stanford Classic.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login