Naomi Osaka reflects on her career after calling out media coverage of Wimbledon loss

Naomi Osaka is embracing a new mindset about her tennis career after criticizing media outlets for their coverage of her emotional third-round Wimbledon exit.

Catch up: The four-time Grand Slam champion fell to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 on July 4, extending her struggles at Wimbledon where she has never advanced past the third round. Despite winning the opening set, Osaka, 27, struggled with six double faults and converted only four of 10 break-point opportunities. The loss continued her drought at major tournaments, with her last Grand Slam victory coming at the Australian Open in January 2021. Currently ranked No. 53 in the WTA, Osaka has posted a 20-10 record this season but continues to struggle on grass courts, where she holds a career 5-4 record.

Clapping back: Following her defeat, Osaka, known for being vocal about her mental health struggles, told reporters, “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.” She also shared the news of her daughter Shai’s second birthday, saying she was “happy about that this week.” However, she later took issue with how media outlets, particularly ESPN, covered her comments. “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,” she posted on Threads. “Wtf, why don’t they clip my press conferences after I win? Like why push the narrative that I’m always sad?” She later explained her emotions, writing, “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.”

Finding perspective: On Monday, Osaka shared a deeply personal Instagram post reflecting on a conversation with her father that shifted her perspective on her career trajectory. Her father, 59, told her he feels “closer to the end of his life than the beginning,” which made Osaka realize her tennis career follows a similar pattern. “I’ve been playing tennis since I was 3, playing professionally since I was 14 and I’m 27 now. I’ve lived almost my entire life playing this sport and I guess it’s true. I am closer to the end than the beginning,” she wrote. The reflection led to a powerful realization about her achievements. “When I was younger my dream was to hold the U.S. Open trophy, winning it seemed like a fairy tale so I just wanted the chance to hold it and look inside because my mom had told me a story about there being fairy dust at the bottom of the trophy. Miraculously, I have two of those trophies now. That means I doubled my wildest dreams,” she noted.

Osaka’s next opportunity to add to her Grand Slam collection will come at the U.S. Open, where she claimed titles in 2018 and 2020.

This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices.

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