Naomi Osaka tearful as she reacts to Tokyo 2020 exit – ‘I should be used to pressure’

Andy Murray shows off his room in Tokyo Olympic village

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She may be one of the faces of the Olympic games, but tennis star Naomi Osaka crashed out in tears as she succumbed to rival Marketa Vondrousova in the third round. The world number two was clearly very emotional as she faced the press and answered questions about dealing with the pressure of being such a prominent part of her home Olympics.

“I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this,” she said 

“I think it’s maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year it was a bit much.”

“I should be used to the pressure, but it’s stronger because of my break,” she said.

“At least I’m glad I didn’t lose in the first round.”

Osaka took an extended break from tennis after suffering from depression before Tokyo 2020, but showed no signs of rust as she came through her opening two matches of the competition with relative ease and looked nailed on to be amongst the medals by the business end of the tournament.

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Unfortunately for the 23-year-old, her touch abandoned her in the third round as she committed a costly 32 unforced errors against the Czech Vondrousova.

The world number 42 dispatched of the home favourite in straight sets, winning 6-1 6-4. Vondrousova’s excellent backhand return and drop shot proved to be particularly effective as she raced to a 4-0 lead in the opening set in just 13 minutes.

After 25 minutes, the set was over and Osaka was already staring down the barrel of a premature exit. While she fought back admirably in the second set and got an early break, Vondrousova continued to dominate on second serves and execute some remarkable shotmaking to find herself 4-3 up in the second set.

She proceeded to hold two more service games to complete the shock victory.

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Vondrousova was gracious in victory, and expressed sympathy towards Osaka for the immense pressure she was facing: “It’s tough for her also playing in Japan and in the Olympics,”

“The greatest in the game, and she was also the face of the Olympics so it was tough for her, I think, to play like this.”

The 22-year-old attributed her fine performance to self belief: “I just really believed the second I stepped on the court. I think that that’s the main thing.”

With Osaka and top seed Ashleigh Barty both now eliminated from the competition, the women’s medals are all to play for. 

Vondrousova will face one of Spain’s Paula Badosa or Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska in the last eight, while Elina Svitolina stands as the highest-ranked player left in the event after fighting back to beat Greece’s Maria Sakkari 5-7 6-3 6-4.

Former Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza remains in contention after beating Alison van Uytvanck 6-4 6-1, but French Open winner Barbara Krejcikova of the Czech Republic was knocked out by Belinda Bencic.

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