Naomi Osaka is one of the most known faces in tennis today. While she played on a limited schedule last year in order to focus on her mental health, she came back this year with an intention to win tournaments. Even though she wasn’t able to defend her Australian Open crown, Osaka maintained positive attitude and she seemed ready to compete at the highest level.

During her second-round match at Indian Wells, the Japanese tennis star faced an unfortunate situation where a spectator in the crowd yelled distasteful words towards her.

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Naomi Osaka breaks down due to heckling

“Naomi, you suck,” shouted that person which resulted in Osaka losing her composure a little. She tried to talk to the chair umpire about taking some action but this did not yield result. She eventually managed to regain her focus and stay in the match but could not prevail over the 21st seed Veronika Kudermetova.

Kudermetova also opened up about the incident during her post-match conference. She referred to how Serena and Venus and also were targeted at the same venue. However,  she said that Osaka was a strong person and remained confident that the Japanese player would get over this incident without much ado.

“Naomi, she reminded something happened with Serena here a few years ago. And, she started to cry because it’s similar what’s happened with Serena. I mean, something kind of this happened but I mean, it doesn’t matter. I know she’s strong. She’s the like, great person and I think it will be good with her.”

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Naomi Osaka also opened up about dealing with hecklers. “But, like, I’ve watched a video of Venus and Serena being heckled here… If you’ve never watched it you should watch it… I don’t know why, but it went into my head and it got replayed a lot.”

It was an extremely painful moment for Osaka and it remains to be seen if this incident will have any impact on the four-time Grand Slam winner going forward on the WTA tour.

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