Attitude is still a work in progress for introspective Naomi Osaka.
One week into the 2019 we’ve already been given a glimpse into the complexity of Naomi Osaka’s mind and her approach to tennis.
The World No.4 was extremely disappointed with her straight-sets loss to Lesia Tsurenko in the semifinals at the Brisbane International, and she was quick to share her thoughts in a forthright press conference after she dropped the 6-2, 6-4 decision to the Ukrainian.
“If I'm being really frank, I just feel like I had like the worst attitude today,” Osaka said after the match. “I feel like I didn't really know how to cope with not playing well. So, I don't know, like I was sulking a little bit, and like there are moments that I tried not to do that. But then the ball wouldn't go in, and then I would go back to being like childish and stuff. So I think like that was sort of my main problem today.”
First off, let us just say that Osaka isn’t the first player to let her emotions sidetrack her during a tennis match. Harboring and controlling emotions has long been one of the biggest challenges of the sport, right up there with winning a healthy portion of second serve points and being able to take the backhand up the line.
Osaka isn’t the first player to feel a sense of anxiety on the tennis court and she won’t be the last. What makes her different is her self-awareness.
Full credit to the Japanese star for recognizing her shortcomings and for instantly setting her sights on improving what she feels is not up to snuff. As Osaka has put her tremendous potential on display in the last 18 months, she has also shown the world her vulnerabilities. She won Indian Wells and the U.S. Open in a wildly successful 2018 that has seen her rein in major endorsement deals and achieve superstar status as the first Japanese player to ever win a major, but at the same time she has demonstrated that she can be her own worst enemy when it comes to confidence and dealing with the psychology of the sport.
Even last year the then 20-year-old made headlines when she shared details of being depressed and in a candid post on social media in August she admitted that she had been struggling with expectations after her title run at Indian Wells, experiencing frustration during her practices. It was a very naked moment for Osaka and it appeared to have a therapeutic effect on her—she won the U.S. Open less than a month later.
The fragility and the frankness of Osaka is a rare quality among tennis players who typically put the blinders on and go about their business and rarely if ever choose to share details of their mental health with the general public. For Osaka it’s becoming the norm rather than the exception. She’s a genuine and genuinely interesting person and her willingness to be open in the media endears her to fans.
But what effect will it have on her tennis? Is this proclivity for sharing a weakness of Osaka’s or a strength? Is there a way for the competition to exploit these frailties and if so, is it wise for Osaka to give the public the key to her psychological castle?
Clearly Osaka sees the value of being her own worst critic, and she believes that her difficulties against Tsurenko in Brisbane will help her grow in the long run.
“I feel like in a way that this experience for me is better than winning the tournament, because like this helpless feeling I have, I think today I learned sort of what I have to do to not fix it, but what I can do to like improve the situation,” she said. “So there aren't many moments that I feel like that. But, yeah, I mean I feel like today was a very valuable lesson.”
There lies the advantage of Osaka’s approach. And this is what many might miss about the 21-year-old. As she calls herself out for childish immaturity what she is actually demonstrating is wisdom beyond her years. Osaka is willing to look deep into herself to find the root cause for her actions. This isn’t a whimsical pirouette designed to garner attention—Osaka’s inward looking musings are the sign of a woman who is both learning about herself and coming of age at the same time.
Rather than let herself slide down a regrettable path, she takes the hard road and holds herself accountable for her actions. One could see her openness as weakness or fodder for the rest of the WTA to prey upon, but I see the opposite—it takes incredible strength to do what Osaka has done over the past year. She isn’t just growing as a player, she’s also growing as a human being, something that far too often gets overlooked in this day and age.