Naomi Osaka is keeping her loss at Wimbledon this year in perspective.
The four-time grand slam winner lost in the third round of this year's tournament, falling in three sets to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. On Monday, Osaka took to her Instagram page with an enlightened post that showed some mature thinking.
The post is quoted below.
Expectations
Recently I had a talk with my dad. It wasn't a short talk but during that conversation something he said really stuck with me. He had told me how at 59 years old he feels closer to the end of his life than the beginning and its made him want to enjoy and treasure the years he has left. He told me he finds this interesting because he thinks my tennis career is potentially similar. When we first had this conversation I stared at him blankly. I didn't really understand what he was trying to say to me and truthfully the topic made me panic. After a couple days a realization suddenly hit me. I've been playing tennis since I was 3, playing professionally since I was 14 and I'm 27 now. I've lived almost my entire life playing this sport and I guess it's true. I am closer to the end than the beginning. When I was younger my dream was to hold the US Open trophy, winning it seemed like a fairy tale so I just wanted the chance to hold it and look inside because my mom had told me a story about there being fairy dust at the bottom of the trophy. Miraculously, I have 2 of those trophies now. That means I doubled my wildest dreams and yet somehow I let my expectations of myself and the expectations of others prevent me from enjoying the rest of my journey no matter how long or shot it may be. Writing this to make a promise with myself to enjoy the times and be at peace traveling and seeing my daughter reap the fruits of my labor.
Osaka was once the top player in the world and won the US Open in 2018 and 2020, while also winning the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021. She is currently ranked No. 53 on the WTA Tour.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Naomi Osaka Keeps Wimbledon Loss in Perspective in Post About Deep Talk With Father.