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Osaka’s talk of the town

NAOMI’S SPEEDY RETURN ON AND OFF THE COURT

JONATHAN McEVOY

Fmatch was a fizzing IrST point of the ace. Naomi Osaka, the poster girl of Tokyo 2020, arrived back on court and bang in style.

and after the Japanese superstar, who lit the Olympic cauldron here on Friday night, had won her first match in two months she even had a few words for the press.

It wasn’t the Gettysburg address, for she is a better tennis player than she is an orator, but it was welcome after citing post-match press conferences as having played a part in the mental health problems that caused her to withdraw from the French Open in May and sit out Wimbledon.

If there were doubts about how match-ready the four-time Grand Slam champion might be, three aces in the opening game, a speedy first-set romp, and swatting forehand, dispelled them as she overcame 52nd-ranked Zheng Saisai of China 6-1, 6-4.

Whether her blistering return to competitive action continues was due to have been shaped overnight by her second-round match against Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic, a surprise Wimbledon quarter-finalist.

regardless of the outcome of that, the ariake Park stadium would have been jumping with native joy if only the fans were allowed in, and it was sad that when Osaka had sealed victory she lifted her racket to two sides of emptiness. a sprinkling of applause from the accredited few, but nothing else.

Imagine if Jessica Ennis had competed in cathedral silence rather than in the din of london’s Olympic Stadium. There would have been no Super Saturday as we know it.

at least Osaka had the TV cameras to dress up for, and she did. The 23-year-old wore a red dress and red visor and red-andwhite braids to reflect the Japanese flag stitched on to the left of her chest. Only orange trainers quarrelled with the completeness of the look.

With the match over, she was ushered through the mixed zone — where players and reporters meet each other — and didn’t stay long. an International Tennis Federation press official hurried her on her way. The total length of time she spent with English-speaking journalists was 43 seconds, time for two questions and two answers.

She also spoke to the local press. She answered them in English, having grown up in america despite having a Japanese mother.

‘For me, honestly I don’t feel that weird about it,’ she said of ending her media silence. ‘It might feel weird to you guys, but I don’t know. I’m happy that I guess you guys are asking me questions, but more than anything I was just focused on playing tennis. I guess I feel a little bit out of my body right now.’

It was unclear about what the last remark meant. ‘Surreal,’ perhaps?

She smiled throughout and tried her best to be polite. The journalists crammed together — on the brink of Covid etiquette! — to hear her every word, knowing it was a fleeting stop.

asked about lighting the flame on Friday night, Osaka revealed that it was in March that she was invited to perform the role, earlier than we thought.

She added: ‘I was super honoured. That’s a position you dream about and not everybody can do it so when they asked me I was very surprised and I’m just happy to be here and happy to play, especially in Tokyo.’

With ash Barty, the world No1, having flunked her own first-round test a few minutes earlier, Osaka’s opportunity over the next fortnight suddenly looked more golden than ever.

TOKYO 2020

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2021-07-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

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