Naomi Osaka mentioned she was pushed by the concern of letting her teammates down after serving to Japan take management of their Billie Jean King Cup qualifier towards Kazakhstan on Friday.
The former world primary and four-time main winner beat Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) in Tokyo to offer Japan a commanding lead after team-mate Nao Hibino had crushed Anna Danilina 6-1, 6-0 earlier within the day.
Osaka, who returned to tennis late final 12 months after giving start, mentioned she was “super-nervous” about taking part in in Japan for the primary time since showing on the Pan Pacific Open in September 2022.
She quickly discovered her rhythm within the match, hitting 15 aces and no double faults.
“I’m the kind of person that I don’t like to disappoint people,” mentioned Osaka, who’s taking part in on the Billie Jean King Cup for the primary time since 2020.
“I really feel like I got here right here to do a job and clearly I wish to do effectively.
“It would probably devastate me a lot more to lose here than it would to lose in a regular tournament, just because I want to support everyone as much as they support me.”
Osaka, whose world rating has risen from 831 to 193 since she started her comeback, received the primary set comfortably towards world quantity 50 Putintseva.
She rattled off three straight aces to start out the second set however she discovered her opponent a harder nut to crack because the match wore on.
Osaka was additionally at one level interrupted by a toddler making noise as she ready to serve.
She calmly waited for the kid’s mom to resolve the state of affairs and mentioned she was reminded of her personal daughter Shai.
“I thought it was really cute but I also felt really bad because I saw the mom and she looked really flustered,” mentioned Osaka.
“I just wanted her to take her time and relax.”
Osaka will face world quantity 939 Danilina on Saturday except Hibino has already wrapped up victory for Japan in her reverse singles match towards Putintseva.
World quantity 79 Hibino wanted simply 57 minutes to beat Danilina.
“I watched the first set of Nao’s match in the audience and I just thought the atmosphere was really incredible,” mentioned Osaka.
“I didn’t want to be the one to let the energy go down so I probably did have a lot of extra motivation.”
Source: www.anews.com.tr