Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic flame during the inauguration and was a Japanese gold jumper in Tokyo, but she went out already in the third round against Czech Marketa Vondrousova.
Now she's back on the WTA Tour and in the first round in Cincinnati she bounced back and beat American 17-year-old Coco Gauff 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The world number two, who during Monday's press conference had to wipe away the tears after a question about his frosty relationship with the media, returned to the subject after the victory.
Talked about mental illness
Osaka skipped the French championships this spring after she was fined for refusing to attend a mandatory press conference.
She has been praised by competitors and supporters for her openness about mental illness linked to the press on elite athletes.
- I thought about why I was so affected by it, why I did not want to do media.
Sometimes I see headlines like collapse or they are not so good anymore about players who lost and I wonder if I got scared of it, she says.
- When I wake up I should feel that I am a winner, to just go out and play and meet the fans is an achievement.
I do not know when I realized it, but I have felt ungrateful.
Donates prize money
The earthquake in her father's home country of Haiti, which killed more than 2,000 victims and the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, have also changed her view.
- That I hit a tennis ball in the US while people come and watch ... I would not want to be anywhere else in the world.
Osaka has said she will donate the prize money she pulls into Cincinnati to the victims of the disaster in Haiti.