Japan's Osaka's dream evaporates in "the worst loss"

Japan's Naomi Osaka, ranked second in the world, seeking Olympic glory at home, suffered a setback today, after her exit from the third round of the Tokyo Olympics in the tennis competitions, by falling to the forty-second Czech Marketa Vondrushova 6-1, 6-4.

Osaka was chosen to light the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Games last Friday, marking the start of the competitions and became the first female tennis player to receive this honor in the history of the Olympics.

Osaka was the favorite to win the gold after the shocking exit of the first-ranked Australian Ashleigh Barty from the first round on Sunday, and then the third-seeded Belarusian Arina Sabalenka yesterday, especially in the absence of many of the top ten seeded women.

"How disappointed am I? I am disappointed after every loss, but I feel that this was the most horrible loss of times," said the four-times major.

In response to a question about the reasons for this painful defeat, "Everything.... If you watch the match, you will notice. I feel that there are many things that I wanted to do and that I am not succeeding today."

The 23-year-old has been absent from the stadiums since withdrawing from her second-round match at Roland Garros in May, due to the repercussions of her decision to boycott the media, before revealing that she suffers from depression and anxiety problems that also kept her from competing in Wimbledon, before returning to her country's postponed Olympics from Last summer due to the Corona virus and be the star of the opening ceremony.

"I definitely think there was a lot of pressure in that," she said. "I think it's because I didn't play in the Olympics and the pressure was too much for my first appearance."

Osaka had said after her first-round victory, "I feel more than ever that I'm just focused on tennis. Playing in the Olympic Games has been a dream I've had since I was a kid."

However, this dream ended early on a disastrous day in which she committed 32 direct fouls within 68 minutes, compared to only 10 for her opponent, while they tied in the winning kicks (22).

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