{"id":387878,"date":"2026-01-03T00:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T00:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/387878\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T00:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T00:12:08","slug":"osaka-reveals-illness-catch-from-daughter-behind-flat-united-cup-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/387878\/","title":{"rendered":"Osaka reveals illness catch from daughter behind flat United Cup debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naomi Osaka<\/a> spent much of her post-match press conference on Friday explaining the \u201cnasty stuff\u201d that hindered her performance in Japan\u2019s opening tie against Greece. Despite her straight-sets defeat 6-4, 6-2 against World No.52 Maria Sakkari, the world No. 16 remained surprisingly candid about her physical and mental state.<\/p>\n

Osaka was seen coughing throughout the 93-minute match and appeared to lack her usual explosive energy. She traced the illness back to her household:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not operating at the percent that I want to be operating at, which kind of sucks because I had a really good off-season. Then I got really sick. Honestly, it\u2019s been a minute\u2026 I think I got it from my daughter [Shai] around Christmas Eve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the symptoms, the US Open semifinalist<\/a> expressed a sense of relief just to be competing: \u201cI\u2019ve been dealing with some health stuff, so I\u2019m kind of just happy to be out here right now. It\u2019s not like serious, but yeah\u2026 hopefully it goes away before the Australian Open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osaka on Tactical \u201cPredictability\u201d and Nerves<\/p>\n

Osaka, a four-time Major winner, struggled with three double faults and multiple aborted ball tosses in her opening service game. However, she refused to blame the virus for her technical lapses:<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely wouldn\u2019t blame [the serve] on being sick. I was just really nervous so my hand was shaking a little bit. That\u2019s definitely from my end that comes the first match of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the match flow, Osaka echoed Sakkari\u2019s assessment that the backhand \u201cdown-the-line\u201d was the deciding factor, while admitting to a mental block regarding her own aggression:<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I definitely could have been more aggressive on the returns\u2026 but [I\u2019m] learning not to be afraid of mistakes. I\u2019ve known about [being predictable] since the US Open. I\u2019m kind of afraid to make mistakes, so just trying to break that limitation in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing Japan for the first time at the United Cup, Osaka noted that the collective environment provided the necessary push to finish the match:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou feel the team atmosphere, it makes you want to go out and do your best and do something. I feel very apologetic that I couldn\u2019t get the win\u2026 we\u2019re all here to try our best. If it doesn\u2019t work out, it sucks, but we\u2019re going to just try again another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

United Cup Group E:
Greece def. Japan 3-0
Perth (RAC Arena) \u2014 January 2, 2026<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Singles: Maria Sakkari def. Naomi Osaka | 6-4, 6-2<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s Singles: Stefanos Tsitsipas def. Shintaro Mochizuki | 6-3, 6-4<\/p>\n

Mixed Doubles: Sakkari\/Tsitsipas def. Hibino\/Uchiyama | 6-2, 6-3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka spent much of her post-match press conference on Friday explaining the \u201cnasty stuff\u201d that hindered her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-387878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}