Osaka's advice to Zverev: "If you don't enjoy what you do, you can always do something else"

Surely the name of Naomi Osaka wasn't one of the strongest at the beginning of this Wimbledon 2025, but the Japanese tennis player had been signaling for some time her adaptation to natural surfaces, a pending issue she had been carrying for years. So far, she has added two victories, which is not a small feat, reaching the third round of the women's singles draw, where she will face Pavlyunchenkova. If she also passes this test, who knows if she should start being considered for bigger predictions. Let's hear her words after defeating Siniakova yesterday.

Her best Wimbledon since 2018

"The truth is that I don't think about these things, I somehow try to go with the flow. I had a conversation with Patrick (Mouratoglou) before this tournament about the expectations we had, so I'm literally taking everything from a common ground, without trying to think too much about the next rounds. I don't think about my chances, I just hope to play many more matches. It's clear that this year I feel more comfortable on grass, I move a little better, but in the last two seasons, I was scared to move. When I was younger, I had a negative experience, I strained my knee, which took me a couple of years to overcome. Definitely, now I feel more comfortable."

Political situation in Haiti

"I am aware of the situation, my father was in Haiti, although now he is here with me, so I am very grateful to him. Every time I hear news about Haiti, my heart breaks, I feel that an injustice is happening, I think people have a negative image of Haiti, but it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Arthur Ashe was a pioneer in all these matters, it would have been amazing to coincide with such an exemplary person as him, a kind of figure to admire within the locker room. He was always elegant, did some really incredible things in his career."

Taking defeats well

"This depends a lot on each person's personality. In my case, every time I lose, I think I am the worst player in the world, I have had a long list of defeats that were really bad. I don't know, it's a difficult subject, all the players you face are the best in the world, this is the mentality with which I approach the matches. I would say that there are some who are better losers and others who are not so much... but I also believe that the people who are not, that's the ultimate reason they are here, because they think they are the best and obviously they are."

Losing the fear of grass

"The irony of all this is that at the beginning of the tournament, when I did the Media Day, someone asked me about this, it made me remember how my first time on grass was. I had a solid thought about it, I realized that when I was young, I didn't have that fear, that's what happens when you're young, you're not afraid of anything. With age, I carried that fear, it somehow paralyzed me, although now I'm overcoming it, trying to spread my wings on grass. I think it's working, I'm moving well, so I hope to keep this momentum in the tournament and in the tours of the coming years."

Advice for Zverev and his crisis

"I don't know if I'm the type of person who should be giving advice, it's very difficult to make a statement on this topic. Usually, I have to think about it for hours, I guess it depends on each moment in life, although everything is temporary. I don't know, life is serious and it's not at the same time. If you don't enjoy something that much, you can always do something else. I'm not saying he should stop playing tennis, I'm sure many people want him to continue playing, but I don't know. I always think people should do what makes them happy, whatever happens."

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, El consejo de Osaka a Zverev: “Si no disfrutas de lo que haces, siempre puedes hacer otra cosa”