“With age, fear crept along… I’m getting over that” – Naomi Osaka gets real about her newfound strength at Wimbledon after years of struggle

July 3, 2025

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Naomi Osaka made her feelings known about unfurling her grass-court wings after fighting her fears on the surface for years. Osaka has always had poor luck at Wimbledon, tennis’s fastest surface, but her recent win over Czech Katerina Siniakova in the second round on Wednesday reignited hope.

Naomi Osaka won two titles at the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021 and at the US Open in 2018 and 2020. She had two third-round exits at Wimbledon in the 2017 and 2018 editions, and her debut in 2017 failed to go past the second round after losing to Venus Williams.

The first Japanese player to win a major singles title, Osaka, faced defeat by Belinda Bencic in the 2025 Australian Open third round and had a similar underwhelming French Open campaign, losing to Paula Badosa in the opener.

However, she has been going strong at Wimbledon, having outpaced Siniakova in two sets in the second round. In a press meet after the round, the former World No. 1 revealed how she has found her grass-court wings after years of fear.

"What's ironic is like at the beginning of the tournament when I did my press, I don't know who asked me this, but basically it was a question about like my first time playing on grass and then I had a solid thought about it and I realized like when I was younger I had no fear and I think when you're young you fear nothing and that's one of the really cool things about it."

She added:

"But I don't know, with age fear kind of crept along and I guess paralyzed me in a way so now I'm kind of just getting over that and trying to spread my wings on grass and I think it is working and I think I am moving pretty well and yeah, I just hope that in years to come and hopefully this year I can do a lot better in this tournament."

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Osaka held the top rank for 25 weeks and won seven WTA Tour-level singles titles in her career.

Naomi Osaka dedicated her 2R win to daughter Shai on her birthday

Naomi Osaka at the Championships - Wimbledon 2025 - (Source: Getty)

Naomi Osaka announced her pregnancy after withdrawing from the 2023 Australian Open. The same year, she and her former partner, Cordae, welcomed their daughter Shai, and the Japanese player has often talked about her motherhood journey and how it has influenced her tennis career.

With an excerpt of her winning feat in the Wimbledon second round, Naomi Osaka wished her daughter a second birthday and dedicated her achievement to the little one.

"Happy Shai day.”

The four-time Grand Slam winner will next face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round on June 4, 2025.

About the author

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

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