Naomi Osaka on Her Recent Deterioration – “I Blame Myself 100%”

She was the new show-stopper in tennis when her Grand Slam breakthrough emerged at Flushing Meadows last year. Naomi Osaka did not just defeat Serena Williams at the US Open 2018 finals, she kept her major winning streak intact at Australian Open 2019 as well.

“The last few months have been really rough for me tennis-wise,” Naomi Osaka wrote on Instagram. “Thankfully I am surrounded by people I love and who love me back. Whenever things go wrong I blame myself 100%. I have a tendency to shut down because I don’t want to burden anyone with my thoughts or problems, but they taught me to trust them and not take everything on by myself.”

Ever since she defeated Petra Kvitova in the Melbourne final, and later sacked her coach, Sascha Bajin, Naomi Osaka has been dealing with a drastic slump with her tennis career. Before she leaves for the US Open series in North America, Osaka penned her thoughts on her present downswing in tennis.

“Unexpectedly though the worst months of my life have also had some of the best moments because I’ve met new people and been able to do things that I have never even considered doing before,” she continued. “That being said I can honestly reflect and say I probably haven’t had fun playing tennis since Australia and I’m finally coming to terms with that while relearning that fun feeling.”

It has been disastrous for Naomi after she turned World Number one. She was the first player to lose her first match as World Number one. She couldn’t defend her Indian Wells title as Belinda Bencic swept past Osaka.

Her Grand Slam winning streak got snapped in Paris and later, she lost her World Number one tag to Ashleigh Barty at Birmingham Classic. She won a match in Birmingham, and then the opening round of Wimbledon 2019 was another massacre for Osaka.

“I have put so much weight on the results of my matches instead of learning from them, which is what I ‘normally’ do. I’ve learned a lot about myself and feel I grew so much as a person these past years so I’m really excited what the future looks like,” Naomi added.

“See you in the US swing.”