Olympia: Playing with fire goes wrong - the tears of Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka s game with fire went wrong: One of Japan's greatest hopes for gold failed in the round of 16 of the Olympic tennis tournament.
by SID
last edit: Jul 27, 2021, 02:44 pm
The tears of Naomi Osaka tore an entire nation out of their golden Olympic tennis dream. "Maybe," she said softly and in that strangely expressionless voice, "maybe it was all a little too much for me." All these damned expectations, all this pressure from which she fled a few weeks ago - Naomi Osaka couldn't withstand it in Tokyo.
After a joyless 1: 6, 4: 6 against the Czech Marketa Vondrousova in the round of 16, the bubble burst again, the hoped-for and already believed tennis gold turned into blunt sheet metal. But family and friends in her Japanese mother's home country are likely to be much more concerned about the mental health of Naomi Osaka than about the lost medal.
"A lot of pressure"
After the match point, she first tried to escape again, after only ten minutes she had left the Ariake Coliseum. She won't be back either, the international tennis association ITF told the waiting media representatives, but then Osaka reappeared. Freshly showered and changed, the number two in the world tried to explain her feelings - which she so often does not understand herself.
"I've never been to the Olympics," she said timidly, "and I felt that there was a lot of pressure on me here." Which she just can't handle, maybe doesn't want to handle either. The break after her noisy departure from the French Open did not play a major role: "I always took breaks beforehand and still played okay."
Osaka struggles with their attitude
Okay, there wasn't much in the game for Naomi Osaka that day, even if she thought it was "not that bad". Her attitude, she admitted, was "not really right" because she didn't know "how to deal with all the expectations, including my own, of course. That influenced my tennis game."
Osaka showed no emotion on the pitch. No annoyed facial expressions when points are lost, no visible annoyance when you make your own mistakes, no fist, no smile when the actions are successful. When Vondrousova converted the match point after just 68 minutes, Osaka tipped his head back for a moment, pulled the headband off his head and disappeared. She was disappointed after every defeat, she later said, "but this one is more annoying than anyone else".
What's next?
Now what, Naomi Osaka? How should things go on with this 23-year-old young woman, who is obviously not made for the glaring spotlights of high-performance sport. What about the US Open, which starts in New York's cauldron in a few weeks and which Osaka has already won twice?
She no longer answered this question in Tokyo. When, at the end of this dark day for her, the tears finally came, she left the facility for good. The bright glow of the Olympic flame that she so proudly lit on Friday did not reach Naomi Osaka in the end.