MUTUA MADRID OPEN

April 29, 2022

Naomi Osaka

Press Conference

N. OSAKA/A. Potapova

6-3, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Nice to see you in Madrid. It was okay, the match? The court suits your game? Because usually they say clay is not your favorite kind of court, usually. I don't know.

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, I'm honestly trying to be more positive with myself. Like this year I came a week early to train on red clay, so just trying to give myself more chances to do better.

I feel like this match for me was really nice, because I didn't know it, but apparently she won a tournament before. She's very confident. I don't know. To be able to do it in two sets, for me, it's a really good starting block.

Q. Before the match, I was interviewing someone and spotted you and your team, and you were holding hands and it looked like a prematch routine. I'm just curious if you would like to share what that routine is about and what it means to you and how does it get you in the zone?

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, I started doing it I think honestly US Open 2020, around that time. It just, for me, like it's not like praying, but I'm just saying like the things I'm thankful for and how grateful I am for the team to be here and stuff like that.

Yeah, honestly, it changes like before every match. Yeah, just like appreciation kind of thing.

Q. How did you feel you played out there, just in terms of just the match itself, the things you have been working on in your practices? Did they translate pretty seamlessly in the match? How did you see that?

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, I think the first set was a bit rocky for me. I knew the things that I wanted to do, but I was also like trying to get comfortable again.

I think the second set went better. I feel that there is a possibility I could have won 6-0. There was that one game that she was on serve, and I was a bit -- there was a couple of things I think I did wrong. But all in all, I don't think I can be that hard on myself. Yeah.

Q. You mentioned in pretournament press that you had some tricks and some new stuff that you wanted to try.

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah.

Q. Do you feel like that worked?

NAOMI OSAKA: I think -- I don't know if I just say it. No player really reads -- okay, whatever. I'm just going to tell you. Okay.

It's like you know what I did at the match point? Like stuff like that. I believe watching like Nadal, Iga does it too, which I think is really cool, but just like knowing when to kind of hit a forehand instead of a backhand and knowing when to run around. I think a lot of really good clay court players do that, so I'm trying to learn how to do that, as well.

Q. You obviously made quarters here in the past, so this isn't a bad tournament for you. I'm curious, does that seem like a long time ago that that happened? Is it something that you can still pull confidence out of as you play Madrid, or is it just a new chapter in Naomi's clay court career?

NAOMI OSAKA: Honestly, I know I joke a lot, but I don't feel like -- I don't feel like clay should be harder for me than grass. To me, grass is probably the most scariest thing.

But, yeah, of course every year is a new thing, and there are new players that are coming up that are really, really amazing to watch. I don't want to like think that it's going to be that easy to go back to the quarters, you know, but it's something that I feel like I should be able to do, and I'm just going to keep working on it match by match.

Q. You're committed to a full clay season, which is Madrid, Rome, Paris, which is a six-week stretch.

NAOMI OSAKA: Impressive for me.

Q. No, but because you don't do that quite often, what are your kind of routines or things you know you want to do to make sure that you get through the six weeks in a good head space and everything?

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, for me, I'm like having like weekly check-ins with my therapist, and then just talking to my friends more, I would say. Granted, they are also busy, so yeah, just trying, I guess, not to -- and also, I feel like I'm exploring the city more. Last year in Madrid I didn't really do anything. I was just in the hotel room. Now I'm kind of like walking around. I found this really cool area that has a lot of vintage stores and sneaker stores.

So I thought it was cool. Yeah, I guess trying to appreciate the place that I'm in more.

Q. I'm curious, I have been talking to a lot of people the last few days, whether coaches or players, there is a lot of talk about the war and all of these things. Do you sense anything different around, or are you not paying attention at all? Some people have an opinion; some are against. There is a bit of tension. Whether it's palpable or not, I don't know. I'm curious, do you sense anything like that?

NAOMI OSAKA: I mean, to me, if I'm being 100% honest, I don't really talk to a lot of players, so where there might be a community like between the Europeans, I'm kind of not really -- I'm not in the mix of that.

So they are probably having really tough conversations among themselves, but for me, I'm kind of just looking at it in the news. I don't really know anyone who has relatives there, so I'm sure that's really tough. Yeah.

Q. Have you been able to enjoy playing the game today?

NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah. I think today for me it was really fun, just being able to be back on the clay and kind of not taking those moments for granted. If I'm being 100% honest, I was really surprised that I was playing on center court, so I think just moments like that and -- I don't know. I know that this match might have seemed a bit easy, but in my head I was constantly adjusting.

Yeah, I had fun today (smiling).