Naomi Osaka believes she would have won her Wimbledon quarterfinal with Karolina Muchova if the weather had been even hotter.
Playing on Court 1 at the All England Club, the 14th seed was beaten 6-7(4-7), 4-6 by 10th seed Muchova.
And while London experienced temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius throughout the day, Osaka has suggested that hotter Wimbledon weather would have been ideal for her.
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Naomi Osaka claims she would have beaten Karolina Muchova in hotter weather
Osaka spoke to the media after her defeat, where she was asked: “The heat is getting higher and higher. Do you think that this little percentage between winning and losing is affecting some players more than others, probably you, where you make one mistake more?”
The former WTA number one replied: “No, for me it’s the opposite.
“If it was hotter, I probably would have won.
“I’m not going to lie.
“Like, I’m a person that if it’s really, really hot, I feel like it activates my powers or something. “Like, I kind of prefer it that way.”
Of course, Osaka will never know what could have been had the temperature been different on the day, but she can still be proud of her best-ever run at Wimbledon.
She said of the positives of her time at SW19: “I mean, the tournament as a whole, it’s the furthest I’ve gotten here. For me, that’s a positive.
“Obviously I would have loved to get a lot farther. As of today, like, if I think about my match today, it’s hard for me to immediately think of something positive.
“I feel like it’s hard because I played so well in my last match, then today I just feel like I didn’t play well at all and I didn’t have any energy.
“I mean, the score was pretty good for what it was, I guess.”
And when asked if she was surprised about the lack of energy, she said: “No, I mean, I could feel it coming because I’ve played way more matches than I usually do before a Slam.
“I just wanted to try that to, like, see the rhythm, you know? Obviously it worked out well. But I think I probably won’t do that again.
“But yeah, I would say it was like an accumulation of playing two weeks straight without a day off.”
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Osaka played just one WTA grass-court tournament before Wimbledon, but she did manage to make it all the way to the final of the Bad Homburg Open.
She also took on Muchova in that match last month, but was forced to retire shortly after losing the first set 6-1, having played with a strapped-up left ankle,
Asked about her ankle after their latest clash at Wimbledon, she said: “Yeah, it’s not my ankle. I’m just getting old.
“I have, like, plantar fasciitis on my feet. Well, that’s what we assume it is.
“No, that happened in Germany. It’s never my ankles. I actually have really flexible ankles. Thanks for asking.”
It was certainly a Grand Slam to remember for Osaka, who impressively claimed one of the biggest shocks of the tournament by beating top seed Aryna Sabalenka.
Meanwhile, Muchova also deserves huge credit for her displays thus far, with the Czech ace now eyeing another high-profile win over Coco Gauff in the semifinals.
