By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday May 30, 2024
By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday May 30, 2024
Naomi Osaka was one point from pulling the upset of the tournament on Wednesday at Roland-Garros, but ended up missing out on a match point and falling to Iga Swiatek 7-6(1), 1-6, 7-5.
Despite the heartbreaking loss to the World No.1, Osaka leaves Paris feeling good about her tennis, on clay and everywhere else. She has made a giant step in her comeback, which commenced five months ago in Australia, and is now more sanguine about her form and her chances to return to the top of the sport in the coming months.
“There's so many positives for me to take from this,” she told the press on Wednesday night. “It definitely would have been more positive if I would have won.
"I don't know, I'm still kind of processing at the same time while I'm answering your questions.”
Did the four-time Grand Slam champion, who entered this week at 134 in the rankings, always believe that she had what it took to return to the top of the sport?
Surprisingly, given her pedigree, there have been doubts.
“I feel like for me it was always a question,” she said. “After I lost in Madrid I remember asking my team if they thought I could ever be a top-5 player again. And granted, I didn't make it to the quarters or the semis here, I feel like I'm kind of on my way back there. For me, that's the biggest positive.”
After Wednesday's sparkling near miss on Court Philippe-Chatrier, those questions are fading, for Osaka herself and for those pundits that had started to believe that the game might have passed her by during the time she spent away from the sport, giving birth to her baby girl, Shai, who was born on July 4th of last year.
If she can play that well against Swiatek on the sloggy red clay of Paris, imagine how she'll do back on her favorite hard courts this summer...
Osaka played brillianty against the World No.1, pushing her to the brink on the court she has owned ever since her debut on the Parisian clay in 2019. The fact that Osaka came so close against Swiatek, on her favorite surface, so early into her comeback is a sign that she still has the je ne sais quoi that made her the most formidable force in the game between 2019 and 2021.
“I'm happy that she's back, because her tennis, you know, deserves to be on the biggest stages,” Swiatek said of Osaka. “She deserves to be there, because she has great tennis.”
How close Osaka came to becoming just the third player to defeat Swiatek at Roland-Garros says a lot about her form, and her ability to rise to the occasion against the biggest challenge in women’s tennis. The quality of her tennis was extraordinary across the two hour and 57-minute contest. She was on the front foot, cracking the ball with verve and pushed Swiatek to her limit
If anything she can regret not serving out the match in the final set. She had match point, missed the first serve, and Swiatek knew exactly what to do from there, ripping a backhand that Osaka couldn't handle
From there the match turned in Swiatek's favor, but Osaka's spirits weren't dampened by her inability close. By performing so well, she can now look forward to many more chances to close in the coming months, and years.
Tears and Hope
Osaka admitted that the loss was tough to swallow, but added that the quality of her play gives her hope that she’s on track to hit her top form later this season, on the hard courts.
“I cried when I got off the court, for me, I kind of realize I was watching Iga, win this tournament last year, and I was pregnant. It was just my dream to, be able to play her,” she said. “When I kind of think of it like that, I think I'm doing pretty well. And I'm also just trying not to be too hard on myself. I feel like I played her on her better surface. I'm a hard-court kid, so I would love to play her on my surface and see what happens.
“I also said in Australia that I'm kind of setting myself up for September anyway.”
Look out US Open, and beyond…