Opinion | Naomi Osaka struggling to quell the ‘drama’ in her head with world No 1 spot slipping away
- Japanese-Haitian star is clearly distracted and agitated – keeping the No 1 ranking is now out of her hands
- Turbulent time on and off court is seeing the 21-year-old’s game slip
Winning the Australian Open to become Asia’s first world No 1, male or female, seems a distant memory now for Naomi Osaka.
The Japanese-Haitian was on top of the tennis world after making it back-to-back grand slams in January. But a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat in her Madrid Open quarter-final by unseeded Swiss Belinda Bencic, where she was a break up in the final set, means keeping the No 1 ranking this week is now out of her hands.
French Open champion Simona Halep can retain the top spot if she wins in Spain, with the Romanian facing Bencic in the last four on Friday.
“People have been telling me that if I get to the semis I stay at number one so I wanted to do that,” Osaka said. “I was thinking about it while I was playing, which wasn’t a good thing. I play my best when I’m calm and today I wasn’t, so that’s the biggest thing I can learn.”
She heads to Rome next week for her final warm-up before the French Open – but all is clearly not well.
