Photo: Getty Images AsiaPac
Star tennis player Naomi Osaka criticized the media for portraying her as "always sad" following her loss at Wimbledon.
On Friday (July 4), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Osaka 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 during Wimbledon's third round.
Osaka expressed disappointment over her performance in the match during a post-game interview shared online by ESPN.
“I’m just going to be a negative human being today, I’m so sorry,” Osaka said. “I have nothing positive to say about myself, which is something I’m working on.”
“It was my daughter’s birthday, so I was happy about that this week," the tennis star continued of her daughter, Shai. “But other than that, today I’m just constantly replaying the match now."
The clip from Osaka's interview went viral on social media, with users expressing sympathy for the working mother.
"My heart goes out to her. This is much deeper than tennis," one Instagram user commented.
"Something broke and has not been the same since her Wimbledon win. I wish her peace and deep, down to the bone healing," another person said.
"Good lord I know this pain. Sending her so much love. Be kind to your mind. ❤️," a third user wrote.
However, Osaka didn't seem to appreciate that ESPN and other media outlets only appear to share her moments of sadness.
“Bro why is it every time I do a press conference after a loss the espns and blogs gotta clip it and put it up," Osaka wrote on Threads in response to the viral clip.
“Wtf, why don’t they clip my press conferences after I win?” she questioned. “Like why push the narrative that I’m always sad?”
In a separate post, Osaka noted that she was "disappointed" for a few hours, but now she's "motivated to do better."
“That’s human emotions,” she wrote. “The way they clip me I feel like I should be fake happy all the time.”
Osaka stepped away from tennis as she welcomed Shai in July 2023. She made her big return in January 2024, participating in her first competitive match since September 2022.
One Instagram user applauded Osaka for being unapologetic about her emotions.
"One of the most unapologetically HUMAN athletes I've seen," they wrote.
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