(March 9, 2024) INDIAN WELLS, California) New mother Naomi Osaka advanced to the third round of the BNP Paribas Open with straight sets win over 14th seed Liudmila Samsonova 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday. It’s the Japanese woman’s fifth tournament since returning from having a child last year.
“I just want to have a lot more fun on the court,” Osaka said to media about her giggling and general happiness on court during the match.
“I think, like, I don’t want to say in the beginning of, like, my comeback-ish. In Australia I was really hard on myself and I found myself not really celebrating just being on the court. So I think in this tournament, I just really wanted to emphasize that I don’t expect myself to win every match, but I want to have fun and enjoy the moments, yeah, while I can.”
“I’m aware of what I want to do, and I have a plan. I think you can see glimpses of my plan while I’m playing, but there’s still a few creaks that I want to get out, and thankfully I’m able to play another match and able to have another opportunity to I guess execute my vision a lot more.
“But I don’t know. I feel like I was kind of pushing today, but also my opponent was, like, really aggressive, so I felt like I had no choice. I just kind of ended up with that scoreline, so…”
The former No. 1 admits that she needs more match play.
“Definitely I think match play is really important for me and just getting in certain situations and not feeling like I’m unsure of what to do.
“But I definitely felt like I was more confident today with, like, the set point and just kind of trusting myself and knowing that no matter what happens, like, go for my shots and don’t live life with regret.
“I think of course in Australia, like, those, what was it, like 0 to 12 breakpoints or something, I definitely felt like now I do a lot more with my shots.”
She talked about playing the 24th seed Elice Mertens next:
“Yeah, honestly, I just remember — of course, she’s a great player. The last time I remember playing her was 2020, the Cincinnati that was at the US Open, unless I played her later and I just have no memory of that.
“She’s a great player. She is consistent, and I think she, for me, gives me just trouble with — I don’t know how to say this — like, her ball tempo. So it’s going to be really interesting.
“Well, what I see is that a lot of people are double faulting, me included. Yeah, it’s going to be really interesting.”
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