By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday August 31, 2020
Naomi Osaka’s short-term future has been in doubt since she was forced to pull out of the Western and Southern Open final on Saturday, handing a walkover to Victoria Azarenka, but the fourth-seeded Japanese pulled up in good form and was able to handle a tough challenge from compatriot Misaki Doi to advance to the second round at the US Open on Monday night in New York.
The leg? It’s good but not perfect.
“Physically I feel like I could be better,” she said after her 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory. “But I can't complain because I won the match.”
Osaka struck 25 winners and 38 unforced in the two hour and three minute contest that sends her through to a second-round tilt with Italy’s Camila Giorgi.
The 2018 US Open champion has been to at least the third round on all four of her previous contests.
She say she isn’t 100 percent fit and doesn’t seem all that confident that she will get there as the fortnight progresses.
“I hit for a little bit yesterday,” she said. “I hit a little bit on Sunday. I didn't really move around or anything. The leg felt relatively good. Like, it was still a little bit sore, but it felt relatively good today. But then during the match, it slowly got a little bit worse. Yeah, I just feel like there's some recovery time that I'm lacking that I wish I could get back.”
Raising Awareness
Osaka wore a black mask with the name Breanna Taylor written in white lettering as she took the court, and after the match she said in an interview that she had seven different masks, all with different names.
“It’s quite sad that seven masks isn’t enough for the amount of names. So hopefully I’ll get to the final and you can see all of them,” she said.
After the match in a virtual press conference, she elaborated further.
“I just want to spread awareness,” she said. “I'm aware that tennis is watched all over the world, and maybe there is someone that doesn't know Breonna Taylor's story. Maybe they'll like Google it or something. For me, just spreading awareness. I feel like the more people know the story, then the more interesting or interested they'll become in it."