Naomi Osaka apologises and says ‘I shouldn’t tell you this’ in chaotic Wimbledon interview | Tennis | Sport

Naomi Osaka made a hilarious confession during her post-match interview at Wimbledon as she reached the second week here for the very first time in her career. The No. 14 seed made light work of Daria Kasatkina, winning 6-1 6-3 in just over an hour to book her spot in the fourth round.

It’s been a special week for Osaka, whose daughter, Shai, turned three on Thursday. The four-time Major winner previously shared her plans to head to the park to celebrate. But she had a not-so-positive update the day after the birthday party, and told those on No. 1 Court: “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

The Japanese star took questions from Rishi Persad during her on-court interview, and wanted to make sure she had time to thank her support camp. “If this is your last question, can I shout out my box?” Osaka asked.

“Because… Thank you, guys or being here. Yeah, I mean, it was really fun to play, and I hope that I’m able to get further and further, but just thank you guys for watching.”

But Persad admitted he’d hoped to get another one in. “I was hoping to ask you one more question if that was okay?” he asked, as Osaka grinned and replied: “Okay, sorry!”

The presenter explained that it was Osaka’s daughter’s birthday, and he hoped to get an update on how they celebrated after she discussed a trip to the park. But the former world No. 1 had some bad news.

“Yeah, I mean… I don’t think I should be telling you this, but she was kind of bad yesterday!” Osaka revealed, as the fans on the No. 1 Court burst out laughing. “So we tried to take her to the park, but then she needed to go to time out, so we’re going to try and take her to the park again today. It was an awesome birthday, I mean, she blew out her candles, she made a wish. So, I hope her wish is to behave better! But if not, yeah, I mean, today is a new day for her, so.”

The 14th seed will be back in action against either Aryna Sabalenka or Jelena Ostapenko on Sunday, so she’ll have plenty of time before that to take Shai to the park as planned. Osaka has already achieved some new milestones here. Not only is she into the fourth round for the first time, but she had never won on Wimbledon’s second-biggest showcourt before.

“I’m really happy. In my career, I’ve actually never won on this court! I’m just really glad to have made a good memory here, and thank you guys for cheering us on. It was a really big honour for me to play, so thank you,” she smiled.

“I definitely felt really good today. I’ve played a lot of matches on grass for the past, like, two weeks, so I felt really confident, and she played really good as well. I’m really happy with the result today.”