Naomi Osaka lost to world number one Iga Swiatek in a thrilling third-round match at the 2024 French Open on Wednesday (May 29). Osaka was up against the Polish player and had a huge task to stop the defending champion Swiatek’s run and lost the match 6-7 (1-7), 6-1, 5-7. The match lasted for nearly three hours as the winner was decided in the last set. Despite her loss, Osaka stated that she is ‘proud’ of herself for the fight she gave to Swiatek.
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During the contest, Osaka put Swiatek under pressure on several occasions but still couldn’t have the last laugh. Notably, she broke her opposition’s serve five out of nine times. The Japanese player lost the opening set in a tiebreaker but came back strongly to win the second before leading in the final set. At 5-4, 40-30, Osaka was on the cusp of pulling off a huge win when Swiatek earned back-to-back service breaks to get the better of Osaka. After losing a hard-fought contest, Osaka remained proud and said that she has got better after returning to court post motherhood.
“You know I have my little book, right? In it today I just wrote: ‘I’m proud of you’,” Osaka said after the contest.
She further mentioned, “I think for me, like, saying that to myself, it gives me a lot of power, because … sometimes I curse myself out in my head, and it’s quite a negative feeling. I would just say I’m proud of the journey. Hopefully it will get more and more positive.”
The 26-year-old Osaka admitted that the face-off versus Swiatek would be memorable due to the quality of the match and the crowd support.
“(It was) probably the most fun match that I have played so far. It just felt really incredible, the atmosphere, and how fun I guess everyone in the crowd was having too. It was definitely very memorable for me,” Osaka added.
Swiatek will now face the winner of the match between Croatia’s Jana Fett and Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova in the fourth round at the Roland Garros.
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