WTA: Osaka stressed by expectations after US Open win

US Open winner Naomi Osaka obviously has more problems with her big expectations than with her opponents after her big triumph in New York.

The 20-year-old confessed after her 4:6, 4:6 defeat at the WTA tournament in Beijing against Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, that she had to deal with the hype.

“I think as the weeks go by. I feel like it’s stressing me,” Osaka said, “if you don’t win a tournament, people say, ‘Oh, she didn’t win a tournament’.”

But expectations are always high anyway. “If you haven’t won a Grand Slam yet, people will tell you that. If you’ve won one, they say you’ve only won one,” the Asian explained. She knows it’s not good, but she reads the comments, “and then I think I need to get better.”

At least in the world rankings, the air for Osaka is getting thinner and thinner. Thanks to her semi-final participation in Beijing, she climbed from sixth to fourth place in the new ranking on Monday, directly behind Angelique Kerber from Kiel – a career high.