- Osaka faces Jelena Ostapenko in first round
- ‘I made a promise to myself to be as confident as I can’
Naomi Osaka says she will head into her first-round match at the US Open against the former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, determined to compete with the confidence she has lacked in a difficult comeback season since giving birth to her daughter, Shai, in July last year.
“I made a promise to myself to be as confident as I can in the fact that I am who I am,” Osaka said. “Throughout the year I have had really hard matches, and it kind of dipped my confidence a little. I wouldn’t say that I played bad tennis. I just would say that I played really good players and I also learned a lot.”
