Naomi Osaka on her fantastic performance — Third Round Press Conference — Wimbledon 2026

[0:00] Good afternoon, welcome to the press conference for Naomi Osaka. [0:03] Please raise your hand if you would like to ask a question. [0:06] Naomi, another good victory. How are you feeling? [0:10] Yeah, I mean, I feel pretty good. [0:12] I'm really happy to be able to be in the second week. [0:16] So, yeah, positive vibes. [0:20] Lucy? [0:22] Great match. This is your first grass season with Tomas. [0:26] How has it been working with him and even so far, [0:29] because it's nearly going to hit a year now? [0:31] Yeah, I mean, I would say it's going pretty well. [0:35] He, I would say he challenges me a lot to, like, think outside the box. [0:41] And even, like, coming into this grass season, [0:45] we were doing a lot of things on the hard court [0:47] because where I train, they don't have a grass court. [0:49] So we were just doing a lot of different things. [0:53] And it's kind of made me, like, understand grass court tennis a lot more. [0:59] I think when I was younger, I was a little bit more stubborn on how I wanted to play on the surface. [1:06] But I realize it's a, it's a lot more free flowing. [1:11] Matt. [1:12] Hey, Naomi. [1:14] It seems like there's so much attention on your outfits and a lot less attention on the actual tennis you're playing. [1:25] I was curious, like, how you experienced that. [1:28] I know there'd probably be some players and some athletes who'd be like, all you guys are talking about it. [1:33] How come all you're talking about is and asking about is my clothes rather than the game I'm playing. [1:38] And I'm sort of curious, like, what your reaction is to all of that. [1:42] Or maybe you must prefer to talk about that side of it. [1:47] I'm just... [1:48] Um, yeah, you're right. [1:50] I would actually prefer to talk about my clothes. [1:53] Um, and it's kind of weird. [1:56] In some ways, I feel like I'm a lot more equipped to talk about my clothes than to talk about my tennis. [2:03] Um, and it's strange because I've been playing tennis for, like, 20-something years. [2:07] But some days I don't feel like an expert on it. [2:11] But if we were to talk about my outfit, I feel like I could keep going on and on and on. [2:16] Um, but I find it, um, really fun that people care and people are doing, like, these deep dives into, you know, the fabric and the making of stories. [2:27] So, yeah, I don't mind. [2:30] Can I just ask, do you find it to be a better way of expressing yourself, the art of design rather than the art of tennis? [2:42] Um, I mean, from my end, those two kind of go hand in hand. [2:47] Um, and obviously, the longer I'm in the tournament, the more stories I can tell with my outfits anyways because I like to mix and match. [2:55] But, um, yeah, I wouldn't say there's one above the other. [3:01] And even tennis-wise, I feel really good right now. [3:05] Like, I feel pretty confident. [3:06] I feel like I'm playing really well. [3:08] But I think on my end, like, there's only so many tennis questions you can answer, you know? [3:15] But it's kind of like the clothing questions are endless, a little bit. [3:21] Well, since you like to talk about clothes, what do you think about, um, Taylor Fritz and, uh, Novak Djokovic, for example, when they enter the center court? [3:30] I saw Francis had some Tara White pants, too. [3:32] Um, but, yeah, I mean, I think it's really fun, like, um, just to keep, well, to have, like, a little bit of suspense, you know? [3:42] Or just to, like, you know, I don't know how adventurous guys can be with their clothes, but I thought it was really fun. [3:48] And I thought it was, um, cool. [3:51] Like, I think on Djokovic's end, he always has, like, some sort of, like, cool, unique jacket going on. [3:58] I think in Australia, he had, like, different surfaces, maybe, or something like that. [4:05] I don't know. [4:05] Don't hold me accountable on that. [4:07] But I think Djokovic always has, like, some sort of unique jacket. [4:13] At the risk of transitioning back to tennis, in the instance that you will play Sabalenka, [4:18] I'm curious, you've played several times this year, but not on grass. [4:21] How does that matchup change on grass? [4:27] I mean, I'm not sure. [4:28] Like, obviously, I've been doing really well on grass this year, and my confidence is pretty high. [4:33] I think, for me, I know what my grass court tennis looks like. [4:38] So it gives me a pretty stable mindset going into the match, no matter who I play. [4:44] And I also don't really have as many doubts as I did on clay court. [4:48] So maybe it would be a little bit better for me on grass, but, you know, I'm not so sure. [4:56] Joe? [4:56] Hi, Naomi. [4:58] Congrats on your win today. [4:59] So far, you've played round one on court three, round two on court two, and now round three, [5:05] you've been on court one. [5:07] I'm just curious, how different do those courts feel? [5:11] And is adjusting to a new court each round something you have to consciously think about? [5:15] And would you like to be on center court to complete the show court set? [5:19] Oh, I don't mind court one. [5:22] Like, me and court one finally have a good relationship. [5:26] So I don't mind going on court one again. [5:29] I think the center court here, for some reason, might be the scariest center court to me. [5:37] And I don't know why, but like going down those stairs and granted, I haven't played on the center [5:42] court like frequently, but it's like going down those stairs and then it's the opening and it's [5:48] like this huge dome. [5:50] I feel more aware of it than any other center court that I've ever played on. [5:54] So, yeah, me and court one can just, we can just keep going. [6:02] Naomi, it's funny having not played arena for so long. [6:06] You've obviously played a lot already this year. [6:08] You could potentially play again. [6:10] I just wanted to think, does it help when you've played somebody quite a lot recently? [6:14] Or actually, would you rather not to have done that if the results haven't gone your way? [6:19] Um, I think from my end, I don't mind playing someone recently. [6:24] Like, even if I look at my results, like I have only lost to like her and Iga for like [6:32] the past couple months. [6:34] So, hey, a win is a win. [6:36] Like, I'll take that. [6:38] And also she's the number one player in the world. [6:41] So if there is someone that I had to lose to, I would pick that ranking position. [6:46] And if anything, I would say I learned from all of those matches. [6:51] So hopefully I can apply it if I do play her. [6:54] But again, Ostapenko is a really tough opponent, too. [6:58] So we kind of just have to see what happens. [7:00] Eva. [7:01] Hey, Naomi. [7:02] I'm well on today. [7:03] You've been moving really, really well all year. [7:06] And I just remember in years past when you came back after having Sky, [7:10] you talked a lot about not like feeling totally comfortable in your body, [7:13] understandably, and things like that. [7:15] I wonder if those two things are connected. [7:16] Like, if that's kind of what you were talking about back then, of like that specific movement. [7:21] And if so, like when that kind of switched for you where you were like, [7:26] oh, I can, this is normal. [7:29] Well, the exact moment was when I lost in D.C. last year. [7:35] And I remember thinking, I lost this match, but I feel like I could move again. [7:41] So then obviously after that, I did pretty well in Montreal and the U.S. Open. [7:47] So I felt like a significant click and it took way longer than I thought it was going to take. [7:53] But yeah, ever since then, I felt like I've been moving OK. [7:56] And I got injured at the start of the year. [8:00] But the clay season, the movement has been pretty good. [8:02] And I think I'm doing OK or decent on the surface, too. [8:06] Can I just ask, sorry, quickly to follow up. [8:09] How did training on a hard court make you feel like you'd figured out grass? [8:13] You know, Tomas was doing a lot of really weird, like, drills that I had to come forward. [8:20] And like, I was never one that was too comfortable coming forward. [8:24] But it kind of forced me to like see the ball or see the speed of the ball. [8:29] And like, it's just a bunch of different training drills that made my mind more aware [8:34] on the depth of the ball and things like that. [8:38] David? [8:40] To bring it right back to fashion, you've had these really big entrance moments at the slams. [8:44] But I was wondering if you were planning on scaling that at any point for outside of the slams? [8:48] Like, does Cincinnati need to watch out for like a huge entrance look or something modified? [8:58] I mean, I feel like I do like little moments, like cute little detail oriented moments in the other [9:04] tournaments. But I mean, you guys want me to pull up to Cincinnati in a ball gown? [9:16] No, I mean, but also I want to pay like respect to Nike, too, you know, like they're obviously [9:21] doing such an amazing job with me and kind of tolerating me and my fashion story. So, you know, [9:28] in that way, like obviously the Grand Slams are the big moments, but I feel like there are so many [9:34] different colourways and patterns that we're able to incorporate on the, I don't want to call them [9:39] smaller tournaments, but like the 1000s and the 500s. [9:43] Chimani? Two more. Chimani. [9:46] Firstly, Chintara served on the set. [9:48] Okay, here we did. [9:51] And I'm curious, you've talked in the past about how when you were younger, you were maybe [9:55] a bit of a scrapper, a bit defensive. I don't want to say pusher, but maybe more defensive. [10:01] At what point in your development did you recognise yourself as a great server? [10:04] Like when did that become your big weapon? [10:08] Um, sometime when I was like 15. [10:14] I don't know why, like, and I tell people this, I played with my sister a lot. [10:20] And I remember my knees always used to hurt because I kept growing. [10:25] And then one day I decided to hit my serve as hard as I could and it went in and it was in ace. [10:31] And I thought in my brain, like, hey, like if I could just keep doing this and keep going for it, [10:37] it'd be a really solid addition to my game. [10:43] So yeah, that's kind of how that went. [10:44] But I specifically remember being around 15. [10:47] And after that, um, I played that Stanford tournament. [10:52] So since you've, since you've been like on the tour, how much has that shot actually changed? [10:57] Like, have you made any changes to it? [11:00] Or is it something that at some point you're like, it's like this, it should stay like this? [11:04] Um, technically I, I've actually been trying to change it, um, a little bit on and off. [11:11] With Tomas, we're trying to make it a little bit more consistent with my toss. [11:17] Because I feel like in the past I, I tossed it a little further back and maybe that kind of [11:23] contributed to like my ab strains. [11:26] Um, so yeah, we do try to tweak it. [11:30] I don't think, you know, um, any players like content being where they are. [11:37] This is for combining tennis and fashion. [11:40] I'm interested in the dichotomy between you being a very introverted, shy person [11:44] and these headline-grabbing statement outfits and statement tennis. [11:47] Do you think fashion and tennis is important for you to be able to communicate [11:51] and express yourself without having to actually do that awkward stuff of talking to people? [11:56] Um, yeah, I mean, from my end, it definitely is. [12:00] Um, I feel like I've been able to tell stories from, even from like the bow dress that I did [12:06] with Yoon and like the twin, I don't know, two, two U.S. Opens ago. [12:11] Um, but yeah, just being able to communicate my style, being able to communicate like my brand [12:17] of tennis as well, because I feel like for me, my tennis is a little bit louder than I am also. [12:24] Um, but yeah, just, I just always have loved stories since I was little movies, books, [12:32] um, and being able to tell that in my own way, um, has been a challenge, but it's been [12:38] really fun figuring that out.