‘Do You Think She’s Trying?’ – Serena Williams’ Effortless Game Floored a Young Naomi Osaka as She Talked About Her Greatness

Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka faced four times so far in their career. Although Osaka had a better head-to-head record against Serena, the two always bring extra energy onto the court.

In 2018, Serena faced Osaka for the first time in her career at the Miami Open. Earlier, the Japanese player talked about facing Serena in a dream match, as she always wanted to face her. However, after playing against Serena, Osaka talked about her unusual experience of facing the legendary American tennis player.

Naomi Osaka talked about her experience facing Serena Williams for the first time

In the press conference after the match, Osaka had everyone laughing with her hilarious and funny responses. Speaking about playing Serena in the opening round, Osaka was in awe of her idol Serena, as she said, “Sometimes she plays matches where she doesn’t say ‘come on’ at all. And that’s a little bit sad, because it’s like, Do you think she’s trying? I just wanted her to say ‘come on’ once because then I knew maybe she would be trying a little bit. So once I heard the first ‘come on,’ I was like, Yeah!“

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Later, Osaka’s then coach, Sascha Bajin talked about her amazing personality during interviews, as he talked about her being real. “She’s just being real. She’s just being herself, and I think that that’s very refreshing to a lot of people. A lot of people in this world, sadly, in order not only to protect themselves but to not let people get close to them, they start faking emotions,” Bajin said.

Notably, Osaka absolutely destroyed Serena in their first-ever matchup at the Miami Open; the final score was 6-3,6-2 in favor of the Japanese player. Although Osaka attended the press conference, Serena did not attend it. Hence, she received a $1,000 fine from the WTA.

Osaka and Serena’s infamous encounter at the US Open

Although the first encounter between Osaka and Serena was less dramatic, the second encounter, however, had plenty of drama. This time, they met at the US Open final in 2018. Safe to say, the pressure was on Serena more because she was going for her record 24th Grand Slam title. Whereas, Osaka was relatively new at that stage and vying for her first ever Grand Slam title.

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From the beginning, Osaka played fearless tennis as she won the first set in no time. Then, the situation got a little out of hand, as chair umpire Carlos Ramos gave a coaching violation against Serena, which made the American tennis player really angry as she confronted the chair umpire about it. Later, Serena received a second code violation for smashing her racket, which resulted in a point penalty.

Despite receiving a second violation, Serena did not stop arguing, as she called the chair umpire a ‘Thief’, which resulted in another code violation. As a result, she received a game penalty, which put her in a difficult position to make a comeback in the match. Eventually, Osaka won the match in straight sets to win her maiden Grand Slam title. As for Serena, she is still searching for her 24th Grand Slam title, as we will see her at the US Open in 2022.