Naomi Osaka’s loss in the third round at the U.S. Open Friday had her questioning her immediate future in tennis, saying she thinks she’ll be taking a break “for a while.”
“I feel like for me recently, like, when I win, I don’t feel happy,” Osaka said. “I feel more like a relief. And then when I lose, I feel very sad. I don’t think that’s normal,” ESPN reported her as saying in her news conference.
Unseated 18-year-old Canadian Leyla Fernandez ousted Osaka in three sets 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-4.
Osaka has gone through an emotional five months-first dropping out of the French Open in May and then Wimbledon in June citing mental health concerns. She came back strong in the summer, lighting the cauldron at the Tokyo Summer Olympics last month before losing in the third round.
She had won 16 straight grand slam matches before her defeat on Friday.
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“Like normally I feel like I like challenges. But recently I feel very anxious when things don’t go my way, and I feel like you can feel that. I’m not really sure why it happens the way it happens now,” USA Today reported Osaka as saying about why she slammed her racket down on the court during her match with Fernandez.
“But, yeah, it’s basically why. You could kind of see that. I was kind of like a little kid.”
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