Naomi Osaka had little to say after being defeated by Victoria Mboko in the National Bank Open final.

On Thursday, Osaka suffered a 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 loss to Mboko, who previously conceded that she idolized the 27-year-old before paving her own path to superstardom. Her second-place finish ties the closest she’s come to another WTA title since winning the 2021 Australian Open and reaching the 2022 Miami Open final.

Immediately following the back-and-forth clash, Osaka swiftly thanked several people while struggling to fight back her emotions.

“I don’t really wanna take up too much time, so I’ll just say thank you to everyone,” she said as tears began to well in her eyes. “Thank you to my team, thank you to the ball kids, thank you to the organizers and all the volunteers. I hope you guys had a good night.”

The short 45-word interview summed up the pain of her defeat after she had appeared on course for her first tournament win in four years.

Osaka appeared to be the better player throughout the first set at IGA Stadium, yet allowed Mboko to roar back in the second thanks to several unforced errors. Her body language continued to worsen as the Canadian crowd began voicing their support for the hometown hero, to the point where she became visibly emotional.

This isn’t the first time that Osaka has been seemingly affected by opposing fans. She held a 5-1 in the third set over Madison Keys during the third round of 2016 U.S. Open, but failed to put the finishing touches on the match once the American crowd started rallying around their own.

Then at the 2022 Indian Wells tournament, Osaka was ousted by Veronika Kudermetova in the second round, during which she was heckled by a spectator and brought to tears. While addressing the crowd post-match, the Japanese star said: “I just wanted to say ‘Thank you’. Yeah, I feel like I’ve cried enough on camera.

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“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before. It didn’t really bother me. But heckled here… I’ve watched a video of Venus and Serena (Williams) getting heckled here. And if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it. And I don’t know why, but it went into my head and it got replayed a lot. I’m trying not to cry but… I just wanted to say thank you and congratulations [pointing at Kudermetova]. Just thank you.”

On the heels of Osaka’s latest gut-wrenching defeat, Mboko heaped praise on her opponent before reflecting on her own incredible accomplishment. “I also wanna thank Naomi for an incredible match,” the 18-year-old said. “I’ve always looked up to her when I was really little, so it’s always great to play with such an amazing player like you.

“When I was younger these kinds of achievements seemed so far away, but I would have never known I would come so close,” she later added. “So, I mean, to do something like this and to tell my younger self that just to keep training, keep believing in yourself and … oh my god, I’m getting so emotional right now.”