• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Tennis Panorama

Tennis News and Information, Tournament Coverage and Features

Tennis Panorama News

Tennis news and information, tournament coverage and features

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Staff
  • RSS
  • Features
  • Tournament Coverage
  • Social Media
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • pinterest
  • Podcast
    • ITunes
  • Tennis Panorama Archive 2008-2017
You are here: Home / Features / Naomi Osaka Defeats Her Idol Serena Williams in First Round of the Miami Open

Naomi Osaka Defeats Her Idol Serena Williams in First Round of the Miami Open

March 21, 2018 by Tennis Panorama News

Naomi Osaka Defeats Her Idol Serena Williams in First Round of the Miami Open

(March 21, 2018) – Twenty-year-old Naomi Osaka, fresh off of her tournament victory at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday defeated her idol Serena Williams 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Miami Open on Wednesday. Williams was playing just her fourth match after returning to the tour since having a baby in September. She lost to her sister Venus in the third round of Indian Wells last week.

Williams who is still shaking out the cobwebs in her comeback, smiled at the net after defeat. She declined to do a news conference but issued the following statement through the WTA:

Serena Williams has released a 61-word quote through the WTA. pic.twitter.com/mQzr1InMKI

— Stuart Fraser (@stu_fraser) March 21, 2018



In her on-court interview after the match, the Japanese woman admitted that she was nervous and excited to play her idol: “I wanted to impress her. And I wanted to make her say ‘come on’ one time and I think she did so I’m really happy about that.”

Naomi Osaka

Oska said that she found out about the Miami Open draw, three hours after winning the BNP Paribas Open.

Asked about her reaction that she’d be playing  the 36-year-old Serena Williams:

“Super happy,” she said. “Yeah, just really excited, because I have always wanted to play her. So to get the opportunity, I was just really happy. It was sort of like a dream.”

Osaka whose title at Indian Wells was her first on the WTA Tour, showed no sign of a letdown from this past weekend.

“I was nervous going into it, but then, like, when the match started, after the first three games, then I was okay,” said Osaka to media about playing her idol.

“Well, because she’s the main reason why I started playing tennis, and just, I have seen her on TV so many times and I have always been cheering for her, so for me to play against her and just sort of trying to detach myself a little bit from thinking that I’m playing against her and just try to think I’m playing against just a regular opponent was a little bit hard for me.”

The new No. 22 in the world is now 14-4 on the year.

Williams’ loss in the first round of Miami is first time she has lost in the opening round of a US hard-court event in 21-years. The 23-time major winner, eighth-time winner of this event, came into the tournament with a wildcard due to her time off the tour. She currently has a ranking of 491 in the world.

Serena Williams

Asked by a reporter if she felt Williams was struggling with her movement, Osaka said: “I’m going to be really honest. I wasn’t paying attention if she was struggling or not. I was just trying to make my balls in and stuff. Like, if you’re playing against someone that’s, like, the greatest player, I’m not trying to look over on that side of the court too much, because I think I would freak myself out a little bit. Then I would start thinking if she’s struggling, if she’s not struggling, if I should be doing this, if I should be doing that.

“So I just tried to, like, look on my side of the court and not think too much about what she was doing.”

Osaka’s road does not get any easier, as she’ll take on No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina in the second round.

In the match before Osaka and Williams took the court on Wednesday afternoon, another mother and former No. 1 on the comeback trail, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat young American Catherine Bellis 6-3, 6-0.

Azarenka evaluated her performance to last week at Indian Wells:

“Well, I mean, it’s hard to compare those two wins — I mean, two tournaments, because Indian Wells was my first tournament after a long break and kind of unexpected tournament, so I had a little bit more time to just prepare and actually get in the rhythm of everyday training and kind of being back in the zone.

“So I feel like I have done some improvement in that little period of time, which I feel like I usually do pretty well. You know, first tournaments can be really rusty for me and to get and find the emotions that I put in.

“But today I felt that — I was just nervous before the match, because I haven’t played in a while and I want to do so well. So I put a lot of kind of pressure on myself to do well. I think you could see that in the first couple games.

“But then I just relaxed and I found my game and I stepped on the pedal and didn’t take it off.”

Azarenka will face US Open finalist Madison Keys, the 14th seed in the next round.

Share

Filed Under: Features, Front Page News, tennis news, tournament coverage, tournaments Tagged With: CiCi Bellis, Miami Open, Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, tennis, tennis news, Tennis Panorama News, Victoria Azarenka

Primary Sidebar

Search Tennis Panorama


Subscribe to Tennis Panorama via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new articles by email.

newsnow_f_ab

cheap tennis shoes from China on DHgate.com

planetbarkad

Tennis Panorama on Twitter @TennisNewsTPN

Tweets by @TennisNewsTPN

Interested in advertising on this site? Please fill out a contact form.

RSS ATP World Tour

  • #NextGenATP Atmane's Pokémon Collection: 'One Of The Biggest In France'
  • Ugo Carabelli, Lestienne Add To Argentina, France's Challenger Title Race
  • Thiem & Wawrinka On Collision Course In Astana
  • Captain Nishioka’s First Flight! Japanese Star On Off-Court Action & ‘Yoshi’s Cup’
  • Zverev Downs Dimitrov, Sets Safiullin Final In Chengdu

RSS WTA Tour

RSS ESPN AP Tennis Headlines

  • Rybakina withdraws from Pan Pacific Open September 25, 2023
  • Zverev, Khachanov into Chengdu, Zhuhai finals September 25, 2023
  • Team World cruises, defends Laver Cup title September 25, 2023
  • ITF prez Haggerty reelected with 73% of vote September 24, 2023
  • Musetti advances to Chengdu Open semifinals September 24, 2023

More Tennis Sites

15-lovetennis (French website)

ATP World Tour

BBC Tennis

ESPN

Jon Wertheim Sports Illustrated

International Tennis Federation (ITF)

New York Times Tennis page

Tennis Atlantic

Tennis Channel

Tennis with an Accent

Tennis Identity
USA Today

Tennis TV

WTA

ZooTennis.com






Footer

Subscribe to Tennis Panorama via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this website and receive notifications of new posts by email.

September 2023
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
« Aug    

Categories

© by TennisPanorama 2014 and beyond
 

Loading Comments...