Despite her wealth of experience on tour, Naomi Osaka still felt the nerves before her clash with Leylah Fernandez at the Canadian Open. After emerging victorious against Fernandez, the former world No. 1 explained why the pressure of facing the home favorite weighed on her and shed light on the unique strategy she used to calm her jitters during the match.
What Naomi Osaka Said After Beating Leylah Fernandez at the Canadian Open
After falling short against Victoria Mboko in last year’s Canadian Open final, Osaka made a strong start to her bid for redemption by triumphing over Panna Udvardy 6-2, 6-4 and securing a 6-1, 6-2 win over Elise Mertens to advance to the fourth round of the WTA 1000 event.
Osaka produced another commanding performance during her battle with Leylah Fernandez, sealing a 6-4, 6-4 victory in 1 hour and 22 minutes to reach the quarterfinals in Toronto.
Despite the comfortable win, the former world No. 1 expressed her belief that she did not play all that well and felt she could have performed much better.
“I mean, honestly, I don’t think I played great today. I think I did the best with how I could do this day. Does that make sense? I mean, there’s a lot that I wish I could have done better,” Osaka said in her post-match press conference.
Osaka revealed that she was “really nervous” ahead of the clash, attributing her anxiety to concerns about playing in front of a potentially hostile crowd while facing the home favorite.
“I feel like, honestly, today, coming out, I was really nervous for some reason. I think it’s because I didn’t know what to expect with the crowd,” she said. “Obviously, like, the day before people were asking me about, like, a lot of questions about her, and it just made me overthink a lot.”
Osaka also opened up about the uncommon strategy that helped her during the match, saying she resorted to yawning to make herself relax.
“So a couple of times in the match I tried to yawn to calm myself down, because I heard that that kind of, like, relaxes your muscles and stuff. Overall, I am really happy that I was able to win in two, but I didn’t feel spectacular or anything,” she added.
Up next, Naomi Osaka will face a tough challenge against No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Open. Despite the daunting test ahead, Osaka revealed that she is “excited” to lock horns with Rybakina in their first tour-level encounter, hailing the Kazakh as an “amazing player.”
