‘I didn’t feel pressure today,’ Naomi Osaka starts her 2021 US Open campaign on a positive note, beats Marie Bouzkova

‘I didn’t feel pressure today,’ Naomi Osaka starts her 2021 US Open campaign on a positive note, beats Marie Bouzkova

Naomi Osaka

Defending champion Naomi Osaka started her title defense in style and got the better of Marie Bouzkova in the first round of the 2021 US Open. Osaka beat HER Czech opponent in straight sets 6-4,6-1 to enter the second round of the tournament.

The Japanese hasn’t been in the best of form off late. She has played just one tournament since withdrawing from the French Open, the Cincinnati Open where she lost her second round match to Swiss Jil Teichmann in three sets. But Osaka proved her mettle and registered a convincing first round win at Flushing Meadows.

The match was closely fought in the first set with each player holding serve well. A lot of games were closely fought and Bouzkova was matching Osaka from the baseline. But the no.3 seed got the decisive break and managed to sneak in with the set 6-4. She carried the momentum in the second set and absolutely dominated the Czech. She broke her opponent’s serve upfront and cruised away with the set 6-1.0

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‘I didn’t feel pressure today’: Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka

After the match, Osaka analyzed her performance and revealed her mindset during the match. “I actually thought I was doing pretty well on the return games,” Osaka said.

“There were a couple games that were pretty close, so I just kept telling myself to keep it really tight, hopefully she’ll get nervous or something. I feel like that did happen a little bit on the last set point that I was able to win. My serve’s definitely one of my biggest weapons. It’s able to come in when it’s really necessary. But hopefully it won’t be that needed in the future.”

She also told that she while she was nervous coming into the match, she didn’t feel any pressure due to her change of mindset. “Honestly, I didn’t feel pressure today. I don’t really know how to describe it. It may have to do with, like, my mindset change. So I didn’t feel pressure today,” she said.

“But I think I felt nerves because I wanted to perform well. I think in my mind I told myself that if I performed well, then the outcome, even if I win or lose, should be okay. I also felt like at the end of the day you train really hard to play in front of people, especially a night match in Ashe, it’s the biggest stadium in tennis. I don’t know, I think that’s why I felt nervous, but I definitely didn’t feel any pressure.”

Also read: US Open 2021: Coco Gauff survives first round scare, beats Magda Linette