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AUSTRALIAN OPEN


January 17, 2017


Naomi Osaka


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

N. OSAKA/L. Kumkhum

6-7, 6-4, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How did you feel about your performance in that match, just your level in general?
NAOMI OSAKA: I mean, I felt a bit shaky. I haven't really played, like, points or practice sets at all before I played this match. I was very nervous.

Q. So what did you think you had to do to kind of, finally close out the match and get the win?
NAOMI OSAKA: I just felt like I had to impose myself some more. She was playing really good, and she was on the line, and I couldn't really, like, make her go back.

So I was just trying to hit my serve really well and try to break hers.

Q. What do you remember about your match against Jo Konta at the U.S. a couple years ago? What do you think of her development since then?
NAOMI OSAKA: Well, I remember playing her, and she had a real good serve and a really good return. I think it's really awesome like how she rose so high and quickly. She's a really good player. I look forward to playing her.

Q. How is the wrist?
NAOMI OSAKA: It's completely fine (smiling). No, it's actually, like, completely fine. It was just a dramatic effect, you know.

Q. So no dramatic effect. It's feeling okay? Do you feel it when you hit backhands?
NAOMI OSAKA: No, but I was a bit tentative today about it, but it's fine.

Thanks for asking.

Q. Some people think that maybe Jo Konta coming here in really good form, she's an outside chance for a title. Do you see her as a real contender?
NAOMI OSAKA: For winning the tournament?

Q. Yes.
NAOMI OSAKA: I think everyone here has, like, a chance to win the tournament.

I mean, she did really good. Like, she just won a tournament, so of course that's very, like, a threat. But I don't know. I'm just going to try to see her as a player, and I'm a player, and I think we're just going to try our best.

Q. How different does the Australian Open feel to you to play, given it's, in, the Asia Pacific, and it looks like there is a good number of Japanese fans out there? Do you feel that energy a little bit more here than maybe at some of the other majors?
NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, sort of. Like, I mean, there was a lot of people supporting me with Japanese flags. So that was really nice to see.

But I don't know. Like, is there a statistic chart about, like, how many Japanese people come here?

Q. I don't know.
NAOMI OSAKA: Okay. No, because I feel like there is probably more people here that are Japanese that support, you know, at this tournament, than, like, the other tournaments. But I'm not sure if I'm just like being crazy or not. Okay.

Q. How did the whole thing on Twitter with you and Belinda and Ana start?
NAOMI OSAKA: Which one? The eyebrows or...

Q. The eyebrows, yeah.
NAOMI OSAKA: I was just really curious, because you have seen them, right? Come on. It's like eyes and then eyebrows. Then when I talk to her, I can't stop staring at it.

And I haven't talked to her in real life a lot before that, so I just wanted, like, an ice breaker, you know.

I talked to her just now, and I think that really creeped her out, because I started talking about the eyebrows again.

But it's okay, I think.

Q. So do you guys talk a lot, like, now you feel a little freer talking to both of them in the locker room nowadays?
NAOMI OSAKA: Yeah, but I feel like I'm very weird and they are completely normal, which is not a good sign.

Q. Why isn't that a good sign? What's wrong with being weird?
NAOMI OSAKA: Because I might creep them out. Like, I might accidentally say something. They're like, Whoa, where did that come from?

So... Okay.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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