Naomi Osaka takes heart in fighting spirit despite Indian Wells defeat

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—Naomi Osaka took positives from an otherwise disappointing loss at the 2024 BNP Paribas Open on Monday, praising her fighting spirit despite ultimately bowing out of Indian Wells, 7-5, 6-4 to Elise Mertens.

“I wanted to win more slams. That's why I came back,” a teary-eyed Osaka admitted in her post-match press conference. “But I think I determine success right now just by the effort that I put in, and I feel like today I don't think I played well at all, but I tried every point.

“I think, like, before I was pregnant, there were a couple of matches that I didn't try as hard as I tried today, and I feel like I can walk off the court knowing that, although I'm sad about the loss, I know that I tried every possible way to get back in the match. I guess that's how I determine success right now.”

Back at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden for the first time since giving birth to daughter Shai, Osaka had to navigate a slow start as Mertens, a former Australian Open semifinalist, raced out of the blocks with a double-break lead.

Though the former world No. 1 was able to peg Mertens back and reel off four games of her own, the Belgian kept Osaka off-balance for much of the match, ending up with 25 unforced errors to 20 winners. Mertens kept her stat sheet even with 16 of each.

“I'm just trying not to be too hard on myself right now, but I feel like in some ways I improved a lot from Doha,” said Osaka, recalling her most recent tournament appearance at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, where she fell to Karolina Pliskova in straight sets. “I think I fought a lot harder, or I tried to fight a lot harder and find solutions to problems that were in front of me.

“Clearly it didn't work out too well, so I hope that the more matches I play, the more I can find solutions.”

Musing on how it feels to chase the top of the sport for the like she did before becoming a four-time major champion, Osaka revealed that experience is nonetheless aiding her in her return from maternity leave.

“I think when I was younger and I haven't, like, achieved, I guess, anything, it was always, like, a wonder or a possibility, and I wasn't too hard on myself, because I was always just reaching the third round in slams anyways,” Osaka said with a smile.

“Yeah, it is quite different from now, because I feel like I should be able to get to that level. Obviously—well, not obviously, but I feel like I've done it once before, so I should be able to do it again.”

Planning to return to her Los Angeles home with her family, Osaka is eager—for many reasons—to return to the Miami Open, where she finished runner-up in at the Hard Rock Stadium in 2022.

“I haven't eaten Haitian food in, like, three years, so I'm very excited to go back to Miami.”

Like in Indian Wells, Osaka will be unseeded, though she is projected to crack the Top 250 in the rankings after a week in which she scored the biggest win of her comeback, defeating world No. 15 Liudmila Samsonova in the second round.