Naomi Osaka outlines what she did immediately after her defeat to Iga Swiatek

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Yesterday, we were arguably treated to the best match of this year’s French Open thus far, as Iga Swiatek triumphantly came from 5-2 down in the third set to defeat Naomi Osaka 7-6 (7-1) 1-6 7-5 .

It was a match that threatened to blow the whole tournament wide open, as the favourite was staring down the barrel of a second-round exit, but in the end, her quality shone through.

She cannot be stopped, and the likes of Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff will likely have been devastated by the outcome.

However, unsurprisingly, none will have been more gutted with the defeat than Osaka herself.

Naomi Osaka gets emotional after Iga Swiatek match

Speaking to the French Open press after her narrow loss to Swiątek, the Japanese tennis star was refreshingly open about her emotions before, during and after the match.

She spoke about her admiration for her opponent, and how she used to watch her during her pregnancy, and then touched on how she was taught to fear nobody, despite how good they may be.

However, upon leaving the court, her emotion was on full show, as she admitted: ‘I cried when I got off the court but I’m good now.

‘I was watching Iga winning this tournament last year when I was pregnant and it was my dream just to play her. I think I did pretty well against her on her surface. I wanna play her on hard courts, my surface.’

A performance worthy of a win from Naomi Osaka

Despite ultimately being dumped out in the second round of the French Open, Osaka can take so much from this disappointing but ultimately promising defeat to the world number one.

After all, it was a match she had no right to compete in, and yet she was just one point away from winning.

Not only was it on a surface she has infamously struggled with over the years, but it is also Swiatek’s favourite, making this a match-up that many would have expected to be a drubbing.

But, brushing aside a tiebreak loss in the first set, she demolished the 22-year-old in the second, and just lacked that killer instinct in the third.

She deserved something, but as Roger Federer famously said after beating Rafael Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open final: ‘There are no draws in tennis.’

Osaka, going forward, can use this fine performance and the bitter disappointment that followed to believe that she is far closer to her brilliant best once again.