Four Grand Slam finals. Four titles. Solo Monica Seles Y Roger Federer they can boast of having an immaculate balance in their first steps in Majors finals. Not bad company for Naomi Osaka, the player of the moment. After signing a final in which she was mentally impeccable and which she solved on the fast track, the Japanese went through the last press conference of a long stay in Australia, but with the reward of one of the greatest titles of her career. Many of his reflections are worth reading.
– Emotions after conquering the title: “I’m very happy right now. This moment is why I’ve worked so hard throughout the preseason. It’s quite strange to get to the last point of the game, you start to shake because you can only think about the ‘what ifs … . ‘. For me, right now I’m living in a’ what if … ‘
– On which surface will a Grand Slam win first, clay or grass ?: “I hope on clay because it is the one that comes before. I think I still have to adjust to these surfaces. I did not play much on the junior circuit, so I have not grown up playing on grass. I think that is why I would have better luck on clay. Last year I felt like I didn’t play bad at all, it’s just a surface that I have yet to acclimate to. “
– Sensations of today’s game: “Today was more of a mental battle. I think we were both nervous. I can’t speak for her, but I was very nervous. I told myself before the game that I probably wasn’t going to play well. I shouldn’t put the pressure on playing football. perfection on my shoulders, I just have to go out on the court and fight for every point. Afterwards, the result may vary, but I could live with the fact that I tried my best. “
– Possibility of being number 1 in the ranking: “If I’m honest, I don’t think about the ranking at all. I don’t play every tournament on the circuit, I just want to do well in all the ones I do play. That’s my goal this season: to be consistent, not have a big drop in one random part of the year, which is usually in the middle, around June or July. I don’t want to give too much importance to the ranking, it’s something that will come only if I keep playing like this, and that’s what I always repeat myself. “
– What is your main goal that you have not yet achieved“This is going to sound weird, but the biggest thing I’d like to achieve is to play long enough to face a girl who said I was her favorite player. That’s the most incredible thing that could happen to me. I’ve had that feeling of watching my favorite players and unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to face Li Na, but hey, that’s how the sport moves forward. “
– Transcendence of this victory beyond the track, knowing that at the Us Open it was associated with the Black Lives Matter movement: “This question seems nice to me, thank you very much. When everything that happened in New York happened I was quite scared. I was scared when I felt that feeling of putting myself under the spotlight, a spotlight that goes beyond sports, a place in which that I had never been to. There are many discussion topics that people began to ask me about, almost suddenly, and about which I did not know anything. I only like to talk about something when I have certain knowledge on the subject, or A minimal notion of it. So, I came to this tournament thinking only about tennis. Only tennis. “
– What has he learned since he won his first Grand Slam until today: “I think what I’ve learned, both on and off the court, is that it’s okay to feel insecure about yourself. I feel like I’ve always forced myself to be ‘strong’, or so, and I think it’s okay not to be okay What you have to do is look within yourself and sort things out somehow. That is what I did during the quarantine, before the Us Open last year. That is what I did here during this quarantine. “
– His record in Grand Slam finals is 4-0. Is that ‘winning gene’ something innate or is it acquired?: “I’m not sure if it’s something you’re born with, but since I didn’t play too many tournaments when I was a kid, I knew that I should take the opportunity every time someone came to see me, I felt it was more fun this way Perhaps because of all that I have developed the desire to want there to always be an audience, to want to play in front of many people.
I also think it’s because I’ve seen so many Grand Slams growing up, I’ve noticed the atmosphere at Arthur Ashe or Rod Laver Arena, and I’ve developed that desire to want to be the person to hold the trophy in front of all of them. So yeah, that’s my kind of answer. “
– On Mats Wilander’s prediction that he will reach 10 Grand Slams: “Right now I’m going in sections. My goal is to reach five Grand Slams. Maybe after five I would think about dividing before reaching ten, so my goal would be seven or eight Grand Slams. I don’t like looking at things from a very general or futuristic point of view. I like to live in the now. It is an honor that I said that, of course, but I do not want to burden myself with pressure and expectations. I know that the women I face are the best players in the world. world, and if the time has to come to win another Grand Slam, that moment will come. Right now, however, the only thing I can control is the things that I have the ability to control, and those things are to keep working hard to create this type of opportunities.
– The pressure to be an example for boys and girls: “In the past that gave me tremendous responsibility, it scared me and made me nervous, since I feel that people only see me on the court. Let’s say I play a game and I break my racket, that made me very nervous, I wasn’t sure if it would give me a lot of bad press when it came to being an example, I was starting to wonder whether or not I should have broken my racket, things like that.
Over time I have come to realize that the only thing I can do is be myself. There are like 500 more players in case you want to choose an example to follow. I feel that it is a huge honor that there are children like me, who come to my games and cheer me on. At the same time, that doesn’t affect me too much, I know I’m still growing as a person so I hope they grow with me too (laughs) “.
– Manage expectations in each major tournament: “The funny thing is that I no longer see expectations as a slab. Not anymore. I feel like I’m at a point where everything I have I’ve earned, I’ve worked to have it. People wouldn’t expect things from me if I didn’t I would have worked so much before. It makes sense. Nobody expected great things from me when I was younger, and now that I have climbed in the rankings I know there is going to be a lot more pressure. I take it as a motivation, I also want to play better for myself Those expectations have the benefit of pushing me to be better, I myself hope to do better than people expect. I take it as a challenge. “
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