Wimbledon ace hits out with 'sad' complaint after her emotional press conference
Naomi Osaka was left incensed with coverage of her press conference on social media after her Wimbledon defeat, as she took aim at the increased attention she receives following losses. The four-time Grand Slam champion was knocked out of the tournament on Friday after succumbing to a 3-6 6-4 6-4 at the hands of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
It was yet another run at the All England Club where Osaka has failed to progress past the third round, despite initially impressing with straight sets wins over Talia Gibson and Katerina Siniakova in the opening two rounds.
The Japanese star, who lives in California, continues her wait to add to her Grand Slam tally with her last major victory coming at the Australian Open in 2021. The 27-year-old's third-round run this month is also the joint-furthest she's made it in a Grand Slam since the 2022 Australian Open.
The former No. 1 was expectedly despondent when speaking to reporters after the loss to her Russian opponent, with portions of her emotional press conference being shared on social media.
Upon finding parts of her interview going viral online, Osaka was left annoyed with the increased attention she receives after defeats where she's noticeably down in her mood.
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Taking to Threads, she hit out at ESPN's coverage in paricular, writing: "Bro why is it every time I do a press conference after a loss the ESPNs and blogs gotta clip it and put it up. Wtf, why don't they clip my press conferences after I win? Like why push the narrative that I'm always sad?
"Sure I was disappointed a couple hours ago, now I'm motivated to do better. That's human emotions. The way they clip me I feel like I should be fake happy all the time," the current world No. 53 concluded.
In her press conference, Osaka revealed she felt nothing following the loss and vowed to work on being more positive about herself in the face of defeat. "In Paris, I was very emotional," she said. "Now I don't feel anything, so I guess I'd prefer to feel nothing than everything.
"It's not like I can really even be mad at myself. I was thinking about the break points that I had. She hit some really good serves. Then she hit a backhand. I can't really do that much about it.
"Obviously I'm still going to beat myself up a little bit. I'm just going to be a negative human being today. I'm so sorry. I have nothing positive to say about myself, which is something I'm working on.
"It was my daughter's birthday so I was happy about that this week but other than that, it's just today I'm just constantly replaying the match now."
For Osaka, her focus now turns to the US Open next month, a Slam she's won twice in her career with her most recent triumph coming in 2020.
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