Naomi Osaka reveals she was “paralyzed by fear” for years but now believes she is rediscovering the traces of her old game that landed her major success at a very young age.
On Tuesday, the Japanese – now ranked at No. 53 in the world – routed Katerina Siniakova 6-3 6-2 in the Wimbledon second round. For the four-time Grand Slam champion, this is her first non-hard court Major third-round in six years.
As you probably know, Osaka had just celebrated her 23rd birthday when she won her fourth Grand Slam title at the 2021 Australian Open. Since then, the now 27-year-old hasn’t won any titles – and not only that – but she hasn’t made the second week of a Major.
But her Wimbledon campaign is off to a very promising start with back-to-back straight-set wins and she will have a good chance of continuing her run when she meets 50th-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round.
Osaka: I was paralyzed by far but now I’m spreading my wings again
“When I was younger, I had no fear. I think when you are young, you fear nothing, and that’s one of the really cool things about it. But with age fear kind of crept along and, I guess, paralyzed me in a way. Now I’m kind of just getting over that and trying to spread my wings on grass. I think it is working, and I think I am moving pretty well. Yeah, I just hope that in years to come and hopefully this year I can do a lot better in this tournament,” the 27-year-old explained.
It is not a secret that Osaka struggled with motivation shortly after her 2021 Australian Open triumph. But after giving birth, she said her motivation fully returned and was determined to win a couple of more Grand Slams for her daughter Shai before retiring.
Osaka is still not a favorite for the Wimbledon title but she is definitely on the course to make a really good run.
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