Naomi Osaka has admitted that she doesn’t know when her next tournament will be after a third round exit at the US Open.
Osaka’s title defence didn’t make the second week after she suffered a 5-7 7-6(2) 6-4 defeat to 18 year-old Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
Despite hitting 15 aces and 37 winners Osaka suffered a three set defeat which saw her hopes of a fifth grand slam end at the US Open.
At the end of the press conference Osaka made a teary statement in which she admitted she needs a break from tennis, “Basically I feel like I’m kind of at this point where I’m trying to figure out what I want to do,” Osaka admitted.
“I honestly don’t know when I’m going to play my next tennis match. I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while. I feel like for me recently, like, when I win I don’t feel happy. I feel more like a relief. And then when I lose, I feel very sad. I don’t think that’s normal.”
It’s clear that Osaka’s mental health has suffered since she took the decision at Roland Garros to skip press conference.
Since returning to the sport, Osaka has only won four matches in the three tournaments that she’s played.
The three losses that the world number three has suffered since returning have all been to left-handed players.
Osaka was asked in her press conference whether she struggles tactically to play these types of players, “I honestly didn’t really find it that troubling like when we were in the groundstrokes,” Osaka said.
“But I can’t even tell you how it feels to return it because I don’t think I could have returned a ball against a righty today either. I’m pretty sure my return stats were really horrendous. It wasn’t like she was serving bombs, so I’m not really sure what to say. But I do think her ad side serve was nice.”
Whatever the future holds for Osaka, she will be hoping to be in a more stable place mentally and will hope that will show in her tennis.
As for her opponent Leylah Fernandez she praised her own fighting spirit for getting her over the finishing line, “I was very happy how I played in the first set,” Fernandez said in her press conference.
“I was serving well. I was playing well. She just edged up near the end. In the break I was telling myself to stay positive, keep fighting. In the second set I guess on the very last game I found the solution to the problem of returning her serve.
“From then on I was just fighting, using the crowd’s energy, putting the ball back in as much as I can, just be offensive and go for my shots.”
Fernandez will now play Angelique Kerber in the last 16 which she will be looking to reach her first grand slam quarter-final.
