Japan's Naomi Osaka celebrates winning against France's Diane Parry during their Women's singles tennis match on the first day of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 1, 2024. Osaka won the match 6-1, 1-6, 6-4. (Photo: AFP)
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Former world number one Naomi Osaka said it felt “like a dream” to claim her first win at Wimbledon since 2018 as she looked forward to celebrating the occasion with her daughter, who turns one on Tuesday.
Japanese star Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam winner, recovered from a break down in the final set to defeat Diane Parry of France 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 on the back of 34 winners.
“It feels like a dream because I haven’t played here many times,” said Osaka, whose last appearance at the All England Club was in 2019, when she exited in the first round.
“I hope it was fun for everyone to watch. I’m really excited to be here because Wimbledon was the first tournament I watched last year after my pregnancy.”
Osaka said she was inspired to victory by casting a glance at her photographs from last year, when she gave birth to daughter Shai.
“I was looking at my photo album. Like, they have that feature ‘this time last year’. I was looking at that. I was looking at photos of myself in the hospital.
“It’s really cool to be here now. I think my mindset last year was just trying to survive. Honestly, I didn’t really know what was going on after I gave birth. Yeah, just trying to piece myself back together.”
Osaka raced through the first set on Monday in just 22 minutes before her 53rd-ranked rival levelled the contest.
In a rollercoaster decider, Parry was 3-1 ahead before Osaka battled back to 3-3.
Osaka then saved two break points to edge 5-4 ahead and claimed victory when Parry served up her 10th double fault of the match.
Osaka, who only returned to the tour at the start of the season afer maternity leave, is ranked at 113 and required a wild card to play at Wimbledon.
At the recent French Open, she gave world number one Iga Swiatek a mighty scare, holding a match point in their second-round clash before the Pole prevailed.
“My heart was racing today. These are the types of matches you need to play to ease into the tournament,” she said.
“I’m glad I didn’t have to play a final-set tiebreaker.”
Osaka said she found it a challenge to dig deep when she was down a break in the decider.
“I can be a little bit down on myself but I’m really trying to stay positive,” explained the 26-year-old.
“There’s a really nice man over here that was just telling me ‘Come on Naomi’ and I was like ‘Yeah, I got this, I got this’ so thank you.”
Osaka said her daughter’s birthday party will be a low-key affair with a cake and a good book.
“I bought her a birthday present but I feel like I’m constantly buying her birthday presents. I bought her a book, so hopefully she’s satisfied with the book,” she said of her purchase of Beatrix Potter’s classic “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”.
Osaka will face US 19th seed Emma Navarro or Wang Qiang of China for a place in the last 32.