‘I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,’ Naomi Osaka on cloud nine after making it to maiden Miami final, says she’s been fighting for a long time emotionally

‘I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,’ Naomi Osaka on cloud nine after making it to maiden Miami final, says she’s been fighting for a long time emotionally

Naomi Osaka

After more than a year of struggle, 4-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka is finally back at the top. Unseeded in the tournament, she beats Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the semifinals in three sets 4-6,6-3,6-4 to reach her maiden Miami Open final. This is also her first final since the 2021 Australian Open and her first WTA 1000 final since Cincinnati 2020.

Naomi hasn’t been in form since the French Open last year after the press conference debacle and it has taken her 2 long breaks away from tennis and finally visiting a therapist to get her mental state in the right frame to climb back to the top.

Speaking on Tennis Channel, Osaka said that she’ll remember this match for the rest of her life given the adverse circumstances. She revealed how nervous she was while serving for the match and expressed her excitement to be back in the final once again.

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“It’s one of the three-set matches that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I think I was really nervous in the third set when I was serving for the first time in the match I was just shaking so much because my body wasn’t used to being in the situation again. Just constantly being aware of how happy I’m to be back to where I’m right now,” she said.

‘I feel like I’ve been fighting for a long time so I just wanted to get back here’: Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka

She further said that she’s been fighting for a long time and was desperate to be back on the top. She revealed that she is in a good frame of mind currently and wants to bounce back when times are tough as she did in Miami this week after a poor outing at Indian Wells.

“I feel like I’ve been fighting for a long time so I just wanted to get back here. I feel like I’m at a really good place in my life and I want to keep that going. Like last week in Indian Wells, even when the times are tough, I can bounce back and I feel I did that pretty well,” she said.

Osaka will face either in form Iga Swiatek or American Jessica Pegula in the final of the Miami Open on Saturday.

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