PARIS – Naomi Osaka smiled as she spoke to reporters after a 7-5, 6-3 first-round loss to Angelique Kerber at the Paris Olympics on Saturday night, disappointed in the result but hopeful she eventually will return to being the once-dominant player who earned four Grand Slam titles and reached No. 1 in the rankings.
“I guess I need to learn how to win again. Maybe that’s something I forgot how to do,” Osaka said. “Maybe I have to keep playing matches against really good players to relearn that.”
She was hoping for a better showing than she had at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago in her native Japan. She was supposed to be one of the big stars and received the honor of lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony.
But Osaka lost in the third round there and said she felt a burden to perform well in front of her home fans. She was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, and the family moved to the United States when Osaka was 3.
“I felt more pressure in Tokyo,” the 26-year-old Osaka said. “I honestly felt like I could have done better today.”
She turned her left leg awkwardly at 4-3 in the second set and said she was given medication to help. But Osaka didn’t win another game against Kerber.
Asked how her leg was feeling afterward, Osaka said: “I don’t know, because I took a painkiller, so when it wears off, I’ll let you know. It felt like I hyperextended (it) a little bit. I felt a pinch while I was playing, but I hope I’m still pretty young, so maybe it won’t be that bad.”
Kerber, a silver medalist in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro, has said she will retire after competing for Germany at these Summer Games.
“To win a match like this against Naomi, who is such a great champion — that means a lot, especially because it’s my last tournament. It shows me that I can still beat the top players,” Kerber said. “I just tried to enjoy every moment. I’m just looking forward to having another dance.”
Osaka rose to the top of tennis several years ago, winning two championships apiece at the U.S. Open and Australian Open from 2018 to 2021 and becoming the highest-paid female athlete in any sport.
It was at the 2021 French Open — contested at the same site as the Paris Olympics tennis competition — that Osaka first revealed she had been dealing with anxiety and depression, and began to take a series of mental health breaks. She was among the first prominent athletes to speak publicly about those topics and, along with other Olympians Simone Biles and Michael Phelps, helped make them a part of the national conversation.
Osaka then left the tour while she was pregnant; her daughter was born in July 2023. She returned to Grand Slam action at the Australian Open this January and appeared to be back to her best tennis during the French Open a few months later, when she pushed eventual champion Iga Swiatek to three sets and held a match point.
Clay, though, has never been Osaka’s best surface, mainly because it dulls her best shots — her serve and forehand, lessening the way they affect opponents.
“I feel like my serve could have been a lot better. When I was practicing, I felt the same way,” Osaka said. “But I feel like that’s never an excuse to lose.”
Against Kerber, Osaka’s strokes were off the mark. She finished with 30 unforced errors, nearly three times as many as Kerber’s 11. And Osaka only broke Kerber once while dropping four of her own service games.
The 36-year-old Kerber is not exactly a huge fan of clay, either: It’s the only major tournament she didn’t win.
Kerber took home trophies from the Australian Open and U.S. Open in 2016, and Wimbledon in 2018, defeating Serena Williams in two of those finals. Kerber never has been past the quarterfinals in Paris.
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