C'est un petit évènement à Wimbledon cette année : Naomi Osaka est alignée dans le tableau final du Grand Chelem londonien. Ce n'était plus arrivé depuis 2019, pour cause de covid puis pause dans la carrière de la Japonaise. Pour son retour sur herbe, Osaka a joué un tennis plutôt bon à s'Hertogenbosch puis Berlin, malgré deux victoires et deux défaites. Elle débutait lundi face à la Française Diane Parry et s'est imposée en trois manches.
Video : @Wimbledon
Video : @Wimbledon
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00:00Naomi, long time away, how does it feel to be back at Wimbledon?
00:07Yeah, it feels really, really cool. I feel myself constantly being surprised by things
00:15on the ground and it's just really nice to win a match.
00:20Questions? Molly?
00:22Hi Naomi, congrats on the win. You said on court that this was the first tournament that
00:29you watched after having your daughter. I imagine that time is a bit of a blur, like
00:34new motherhood, but I just wondered if you could give us some insight into where you
00:37were last year compared to being back on court this year.
00:41I mean, I was honestly, before my match, I was looking at my photo album and they have
00:48that feature this time last year, so I was looking at that and I was looking at myself,
00:54like photos of myself in the hospital, so it's really cool to be here now and I think
01:02my mindset last year was just trying to survive. I honestly didn't really know what was going
01:11on after I gave birth, but yeah, just trying to piece myself back together.
01:19Hi Naomi, you mentioned on court as well that it's your daughter's first birthday tomorrow.
01:24Have you got any sort of celebration lined up?
01:26She actually had a really big celebration a week or so ago. That's one of the things
01:37that I didn't want to miss, so that's kind of why I didn't play Eastbourne, just because
01:41I didn't want to miss my daughter's first birthday party. And then, yeah, she's going
01:48to have a cake and stuff here, but not like a crazy big event.
01:54What does it feel like to have a grass under your feet again in a seriously competitive
02:01match in this place?
02:05I mean, for me, it felt really fun and really stressful at the same time. It was fun because
02:11the crowd was so engaged and I honestly, I think I've played on court too before. I think
02:18I played Katie Bolter there, but I'm not, I'm like 80% sure, but I could be wrong. But
02:25it was just really fun. It felt like an arena and the match, I think, was a little up and
02:32down, but I think overall it was something that I can take a lot away from.
02:37Good stress or bad stress?
02:39All stress is not the best, but I think I just learned a lot.
02:47Hi, a little bit of a different question. If you could step back and would have the
02:53opportunity to invite three people in from the tennis world to a dinner gathering, who
03:00would those three people you'd like to invite be?
03:08Andrea Agassi, Lee Na, and can I invite myself? Because I kind of want to see. Ooh, okay.
03:17Andrea Agassi, Lee Na. Is it like a friendly gathering or am I learning from them?
03:31It can be friendly, it can be fierce, anything that you would like.
03:36Sharapova.
03:38Do you like Lee Na's sense of humor?
03:41I love it. I remember I used to watch so many interviews, on court interviews, any kind
03:46of interviews from her. I really think she's one of the best.
03:52Hi Naomi, Ava Wallace from the Washington Post. What do you mean when you say you're
03:56surprised being back on the grounds? Are you seeing new things that you don't remember
04:00or what are you talking about with that?
04:02Well, the last time I was here, there wasn't a separate transportation building, so I felt
04:09like I had to do a whole grand tour just to, I guess, figure out where things are.
04:14And when I say I'm kind of surprised, I just mean like, it's cool to watch Wimbledon on
04:22TV, but I think to be here is a whole different story.
04:25I know you've spoken a little bit about the Olympics before, but I wanted to ask, there
04:29are a lot of players who are kind of trying to get back on track and comebacks or just
04:33kind of find their form and are not going to Paris because it's so disruptive to the
04:37schedule. I wonder why you wanted to go back and play.
04:40Well, I mean, for me, the Olympics were so, well, they mean so much to me. Growing up
04:46as a kid, that's like the one event I remember just pooling around the TV with my sister
04:52and we mainly loved watching track, but basically all the sports were fair game. And I just
04:59love being around other athletes and I love, I guess, the team spirit of it all.
05:06Hi, I was going to say, I assume that you actually missed probably the sport because
05:12of the pop-up show, but you were there and I wanted to know how was your experience there
05:16because it was such a historical moment during that period of time.
05:19Yeah, honestly, I wasn't, I was kind of surprised to go. It was just like, Cordae had tickets,
05:28so I just flew in and he was like, oh, you're here. And that's kind of how that happened.
05:32But it was really fun. I think the energy was really cool. Everyone was basically wrapping
05:40every lyric. So it was definitely a memory or a concert that I don't think anyone will forget.
05:49In terms of today's match, can you talk about the relief of pulling through a free setter
05:53because I know that you've lost a few of those this year and also the challenge of playing
05:58someone with Deanne Parry's quite unusual game with the one-handed backhand?
06:03Yeah. It's really weird because I know I actually kind of have a good record with three setters.
06:15Maybe not this year, but I feel like overall I'm pretty decent at them. And I feel like
06:23today honestly felt very hectic just because of the way she played. I felt that I had to
06:29constantly tell myself to be in control of the point, but when she was slicing and stuff,
06:34it was a little stressful. But I feel really relieved to have won this in three sets.
06:41I think it will do good for my character development. So yeah, I guess I'm just excited to play my next match.
06:49Naomi, you know how kids when they're little hit against the wall over and over again
06:53pretending that they're playing at the U.S. Open or Wimbledon. As you've been in your retraining
06:58over the last several months, do you look back and think about your U.S. Open wins
07:04and sort of train along those lines to feel the way you felt at the U.S. Open?
07:09You know, it's funny because when I was just coming back from pregnancy, I was thinking
07:17that I was going to train the exact same way and I was going to play the exact same way.
07:24But I feel like that's the cool thing about life. You don't have to constantly revisit
07:30the past. And I think for me, that puts a lot of pressure on myself. And honestly,
07:35the way that I want to play now is an evolution of how I played before.
07:40And I know I would need the results to back it up, but I think certain aspects of my game are better.
07:47I just need to, I guess, put the pieces together. And I feel like as an overall athlete,
07:53I might be a little better now just because back then I would get injured.
07:59Some parts of my body would be hurting. And now, the way that I train, I don't have pain anymore.
08:05So, yeah.
08:07OK, we'll take one more and then we're going to switch to...
08:11Just to ask, do you think that tennis overall, the player circuit and championships such as Wimbledon
08:16are welcoming places for young mums and people who are coming back into the game after pregnancy
08:22and giving birth?
08:24I mean, I would say my experience has been going pretty well.
08:28I think that whenever I go to tournaments, there's like a little children's play area.
08:37And so I feel like they are taking that into consideration.
08:40And I actually do see a lot more kids on tour now.
08:44So that's something that's very adorable. And it's also something that's very reassuring.
08:50That's something that's very adorable. And it's also something that's very reassuring.
08:54And I hope that other parents feel the same way.
09:00We're going to take some questions in Japanese.
09:03Thank you.
09:05Tomorrow is Shai's first birthday.
09:09I think it was a birthday present a day early.
09:13How do you feel about that?
09:15How do you want to spend your special first birthday tomorrow?
09:22Yeah, I mean, I feel like the year has gone by really fast.
09:26And it's a little surprising that she's already one, but she has so much personality.
09:32It feels like she's older than one at this point.
09:36But yeah, I think, I don't know.
09:41Honestly, I'm just really grateful that she's in this world.
09:45And I want to throw her a very extravagant birthday party, but I'm probably not going to.
09:53Just because that's the way I grew up.
09:55We just had a cake and that was pretty much it.
09:58I feel like more than anything, she just needs to be surrounded by love.
10:03And I didn't, I bought her a birthday present.
10:07But I feel like I'm constantly buying her birthday presents.
10:10So right now I bought her a book.
10:14So hopefully she's satisfied with the book.
10:16What's the book?
10:18I like buying the classic children's books.
10:21So I bought the Tale of Peter Rabbit.
10:26And I like collecting Rainbow Fish and all the classic books.
10:35So what changed the momentum after the first match, I mean first set?
10:39And what did you do to adjust to what she was trying to do?
10:43I think, honestly I feel like I came out really, really strong in the first set.
10:50And then not being too hard on myself, I think she adjusted a lot better in the second set.
10:56And I know I had my chances in the first game.
10:58And if I think about it without being in myself, I know that I didn't play bad.
11:08I think I just put too much pressure on myself that I need to win all the games that I can't be broken and things like that.
11:18So when that eventually happened, I felt like I doubted myself even though I knew my game plan going in.
11:28So yeah, that's kind of what I adjusted in the third set.
11:31I just knew that I can only play this way to get the result that I want.
11:36And even if I don't win, I can go out seeing that I at least developed a little bit as a player.