Japanese tennis icon Naomi Osaka suffered a surprise defeat at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Tuesday in a straight-sets defeat in the women’s singles to Marketa Vondrousova.
Osaka, who has been labelled by many as the face of the Games having lit up the Olympic cauldron in last week’s opening ceremony, lost 6-1 6-4 to world number 42 Vondrousova in the third round.
“I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this,” said the world number two as quoted by the BBC.
“I think it’s maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year it was a bit much.”
The four-time Grand Slam champion withdrew from the French Open in June, revealing that she “suffered long bouts of depression” since her first major win at the US Open in 2018.
“I think I’m glad with how I played, with taking that break that I had,” Osaka added.
“I’ve taken long breaks before and I’ve managed to do well.
“I’m not saying that I did bad right now, but I do know that my expectations were a lot higher.
“I feel like my attitude wasn’t that great because I don’t really know how to cope with that pressure so that’s the best that I could have done in this situation.”