Naomi Osaka's heartfelt gesture for beaten opponent
US Open champion Naomi Osaka produced a heartfelt gesture and apologised to her beaten opponent Zhang Shuai in a touching moment.
The 20-year-old Japanese fought back tears – and rescued a match that was slipping away from her – to defeat the unseeded home hope 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to reach the China Open semi-finals.
Osaka wasn’t simply apologising for overcoming Zhang, but her sincere apology was for the ’emotional’ behaviour she displayed during the match.
“I was basically apologising because I feel like today I was more emotional than what I normally am trying to be like,” said the world number six.
Osaka, who looked glum even in victory and had flung her racquet around during the match, put it all aside to embrace Zhang at the end.
The Japanese tennis star rocketed to worldwide sporting attention after her incredible US Open feat, which was overshadowed by a controversial Serena Williams moment.
The eighth seed stunned Serena Williams to win her maiden Grand Slam last month in New York, and she has admitted struggling with the fall-out after Williams rowed with the chair umpire
Whether Osaka had learned from that very experience, or if it’s just in her good nature, the rising star’s class act was a welcome sight.
Asked at the post-match press conference – where she again looked unhappy – why she had had tears in her eyes on court, she replied curtly: “Because it was a hard match. That’s basically why.”
The 45th-ranked Zhang – with the crowd on her side – raced into an early lead against an unusually erratic Osaka, who had won 24 of her previous 28 games.
Osaka continued to rack up errors and conceded the first set when she hit into the net – she was to make 66 unforced errors in all.
The 29-year-old Zhang, who has won two career WTA singles titles, saved six break points to take the lead in the second set.
Zhang broke to go 2-0 up and Osaka began welling up.
“I just kind of felt a little bit tired practising and warming up for the match,” she said.
“Then when I stepped on the court, I just felt a little bit drained.”
Osaka faces Latvia’s unseeded Anastasija Sevastova in Saturday’s semi-finals on Beijing’s outdoor hard courts.
with AFP.
