New York: After her comeback win over Victoria Azarenka in the US Open final on Saturday, Naomi Osaka claimed she could have easily faded away.
"I feel like a very good and recent example is the first set and the second set of the match that I played today. I think I could have easily faded away, but I really wanted to fight, just compete" the young Japanese player said.
When asked about how she managed to pull it off despite all her activism during the tournament, she said "I feel like definitely there were a lot of hard times, especially being in the bubble. You sort of overthink a lot of things. But I think I just got through it because during quarantine I wanted to, you know, set myself up to possibly win this tournament. I felt like I just worked so hard, I wanted to give myself an opportunity. I wanted more people to see, you know, more names, so..."
"I feel like for me I learn more through experiences, so I want to… Everyone sort of thinks they know, or I actually don't want to know how they're feeling or how they felt during the process. For me, I feel like sharing stories and hearing people's experiences is very valuable, so..."
Osaka also admitted that mentally these were the toughest three-setter she has ever been through.
"For me, I don't really remember all the three-set matches that I've played, but you know, I know that this one's really tough mentally because it is the finals of a slam. I know in the third set I lost my serve. I think you could see that I was very nervous. But I'm glad I was able to finish it out. I'm really not sure what ranking it is. But I would just say like my competitiveness, of course, I'm very competitive. It's something that I've had since I was younger."
Talking about her celebration after the win she said, "I was thinking about all the times I've watched the great players sort of collapse onto the ground and look up into the sky. I've always wanted to see what they saw. For me, you know, it was really an incredible moment and I'm really glad I did it."
"I think in the first set I was just so nervous, I wasn't moving my feet. I felt like I was not playing - not that I expect myself to play 100%, but it would be nice if I could even play, like, 70%. But, yeah, I just felt like I was too much in my own head. Then in the second set, of course, I was down early, which really didn't help me out, but I just thought to myself to be positive, don't lose 6-1, 6-0, hopefully, give her a slight run for her money. Yeah, I just sort of ran with that line of thinking."
