Naomi Osaka exited her Wimbledon press conference early after losing to Yulia Putintseva in the first round
Naomi Osaka cut her Wimbledon post-match press conference short after losing to Yulia Putintseva in the first round.
Osaka was on the verge of tears before she turned to the moderator at the press conference and said, “can I leave? I feel like I’m about to cry.”
Putintseva had beaten the second seed in straight-sets at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, which was Osaka’s last match before the All England Club. The Kazakh then beat the Japanese tennis star 7–6 (4), 6–2 at Wimbledon.
During the post-match press conference, Osaka was asked how she would pick herself up from the defeat. She replied, “I don’t know. There is answers to questions that you guys ask that I still haven’t figured out yet.”
“I mean, the key for me was just, like, having fun, I guess, like learning how to have fun, kind of taking pressure off myself,” she added. “I hope I can somehow find a way to do that.”
Kazakhstan’s Putintseva play against on Viktorija Golubic in the next round.
Last month, Osaka was listed in Gold House’s second annual A100 list of Most Influential Asians.
