Two days after a considerate alternate with an area sports activities columnist, Naomi Osaka delivered a extra related assertion on the courtroom.
She’s again.
Down a set and a break to 17-year-old Coco Gauff, the second-ranked Osaka fought again to tug out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win on the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday, her first WTA Tour occasion because the French Open in late May.
Osaka appreciated being examined so rapidly.
“It’s definitely been a while since I played a tough opponent in a three-set match,” she mentioned. “It was definitely really tough, but I feel really good right now. I’m super excited to play another match.”
Citing discomfort with post-match information conferences, the four-time Grand Slam champion withdrew from Roland Garros and skipped Wimbledon. She was eradicated within the spherical of 16 on the Tokyo Olympics after lighting the Olympic cauldron in her native Japan.
The 23-year-old Osaka is outspoken on many social points and introduced throughout Monday’s pre-match media session that she could be donating her match prize cash to earthquake-ravaged Haiti, her father’s homeland. Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty requested how she balanced her discomfort with information conferences and her want to talk out.
Osaka paused in thought and, declining the moderator’s suggestion to maneuver on from the subject, requested Daugherty to repeat the query. She responded with what the author later described as the most effective reply he’s ever heard in 34 years of overlaying sports activities.
“Um, I mean, for me, I feel like this is something that I can’t — I can’t really speak for everybody,” she mentioned. “I can solely converse for myself, however ever since I used to be youthful, I’ve had quite a lot of media curiosity on me, and I believe it’s due to my background in addition to, you recognize, how I play, as a result of within the first place, I’m a tennis participant.
“That’s why a lot of people are interested in me, so I would say in that regard, I’m quite different to a lot of people, and I can’t really help that there are some things that I tweet or some things that I say that kind of create a lot of news articles or things like that, and I know it’s because I have won a couple of Grand Slams, and I have gotten to do a lot of press conferences that these things happen, but I would also say, like, I’m not really sure how to balance the two. Like I’m figuring it out at the same time as you are, I would say.”
While Osaka appeared snug through the alternate, her agent, Stuart Duguid, described Daugherty on Twitter as a “bully.”
In different matches, top-ranked Ash Barty wanted a second-set tiebreaker to beat Heather Watson, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in a match postponed from Tuesday by rain. Three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber upset fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina.
Simona Halep, the twelfth seed, withdrew with a proper thigh harm.
Men’s high seed Daniil Medvedev cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win in 59 minutes over wild card Mackenzie McDonald, and three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray was eradicated by ninth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz.
Both Olympic singles gold medalists, Alexander Zverev and Belinda Bencic, and males’s No. 2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas all superior in straight units. Two-time Slam champion Garbine Muguruza and fifth-seeded Karolina Pliskova additionally gained in straight units.
