Naomi Osaka Explains Mentality Shift During Unfavorable Results After Beating Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon

Naomi Osaka claimed her first win over Aryna Sabalenka in more than seven years at the Wimbledon Championship on Sunday (July 5). The Japanese star, who had lost to Sabalenka at the French Open last month, earned her revenge at the Center Court in the All England Club, with an extraordinary display to reach her first quarter-final.

The last time Osaka defeated Sabalenka before this year’s Wimbledon was at the 2018 US Open in three sets. When the four-time Grand Slam champion returned from her maternity leave, Sabalenka began to get the better of Osaka, beating her recently at Roland Garros in Paris, in straight sets.

Osaka arrived at the match against Sabalenka with a history of never reaching the quarter-finals at the All England Club. In fact, the last time she had reached the last eight of a Grand Slam tournament was at the US Open last September. On the other hand, Sabalenka had reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon and was the favorite to win the championship this year.

But Osaka produced one of her most memorable performances of her career. She made sure the pace of her game and flat groundstrokes were unbearable for Sabalenka under the 27-degree Celsius temperature. Sabalenka couldn’t dictate the pace of the match and sometimes looked confused.

In the second set tiebreak, Sabalenka continued with her string of errors, which gave Osaka complete control to claim the victory 6-2, 7-6(2), earning her second win on tour over the Belarusian star. Speaking after the match, Osaka opened up on the reason behind her mental shift and win over the World No.1:

The people around me, even for years, tried to help me a lot in that aspect. I think it came after Rome. I lost to Iga very convincingly. I felt like I just shut myself off from everyone. I literally got on a plane and went back home. It wasn’t the most professional thing to do. I didn’t speak to my team. I felt very embarrassed about what I did. After that, I told myself, ‘Hey, I’m getting close to 30, I really have to enjoy the time I have.’

With Sabalenka out of Wimbledon, it means the top 3 players in the WTA circuit are out of the tournament draw. Also, Barbora Krejcikova, the 2024 champion, exited the event on Sunday (July 5), ensuring that a new champion will emerge at the All England Club. Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina crashed out in the third round.

Naomi Osaka reveals reason behind playing comfortably on grass

Naomi Osaka is now one of three Grand Slam winners still in the women’s draw of Wimbledon. The others are Coco Gauff and former Australian Open champion Madison Keys. That means Osaka has an incredible chance to win her first natural-surface major title, having won her four Slams on hard courts.

However, the major discussion around Osaka’s rise at Wimbledon has been her immense improvement on grass this season. The former World No.1, who is known for her hard court success, reached the final of the Bad Homburg Open. During the aforementioned media interview, she revealed why she now feels comfortable on the grass court:

Without a doubt, I would say that my relationship with grass and with Wimbledon was not the best when I was younger. I’m not quite sure why I feel so comfortable on grass this year. I think I have done many exercises with Tomasz. Most of them weren’t necessarily on grass. It was more about recognizing patterns and things like that, feeling comfortable with my own game.

Osaka will face Karolina Muchova in the quarter-finals on Tuesday (July 7), a rematch of their Bad Homburg Open quarter-final. Osaka retired after the first set of her match against Muchova, leaving the latter to claim the title. Muchova had defeated Barbora Krejcikova 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 on Sunday.

Also Read: Felix Auger-Aliassime Reveals One Metric in Which Novak Djokovic has Outperformed him Ahead of their Wimbledon Quarterfinals