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Naomi Osaka forehand US Open
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Naomi Osaka: ‘I thought it would be embarrassing to lose in under an hour, I had a very bad attitude’


Naomi Osaka said she had to overcome a ‘bad attitude’ to win her second US Open title and she feared an embarrassing defeat at one point.

The Japanese star played a horrendous opening set, quickly seeing it slip away from her against Victoria Azaarenka’s powerful baseline hitting.

She was able to turn it around, but she had to work incredibly hard for her win after finding herself a set and a break down in the second.

However, she said she was motivated by how poorly she had played.

“For me, I just thought it would be embarrassing to lose this in under an hour.

She also had a message for Azarenka, who had said she hoped they would meet in more finals int the years to come.

“I didn’t want to play you in more finals. That was really tough for me.

“I used to watch you. To have the opportunity to play you is really great.

After winning the match, Naomi Osaka walked to the other end of the court and lay down, but she said there was a very simple – and pragmatic – explanation.

“I always see everyone collapse after match point. But I didn’t want to get injured – I wanted to do it safely.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.