Osaka using time away from court to address shyness: "I'm over here actually putting my own limiter on myself"

Sunday, 17 May 2020 at 17:18

Naomi Osaka is utilising her time away from the court to help change one aspect of herself and that is her shyness.

Osaka is renowned for her introverted personality and shyness and she wants to help end that perception going forward.

“I’m done being shy. It’s really a waste of my time. I could’ve shared so many ideas by now, I could’ve had conversations with so many different people. All the things I could’ve learned but no I’m over here actually putting my own limiter on myself,” she previously wrote on Twitter.

"For me, I have a lot of regrets before I go to sleep, and most of the regret is that I don't speak out about what I'm thinking," she explains in an interview with CNN Sport.

"There's a lot of times where I see myself in situations where I could have put my input in, but instead I've held my tongue and things kept moving in a way that I didn't really enjoy."

"I feel like if I asserted myself I would have gotten the opportunity to see what would have happened."

Meeting music royalty to find realisation

Osaka discussed meeting Jay-Z and Beyonce and spoke about how that experience which went wrong from her perspective due to being such a huge fan made her come to that realisation.

"He started talking to me, but I got really nervous and started giving one word replies so he suddenly said, 'Are you shy?' and I said, 'yeah,' and the convo came to a screeching halt."

"I want to take the chance to tell people I appreciate them while I can," she continued.

"I would like to thank Jay-Z and Beyoncé for making music that motivates me, because there was a period in my life where I just watched Beyoncé performances to get motivated.

"Even right now I'm listening to older Jay-Z songs because I feel like they're really chill."

https://twitter.com/naomiosaka/status/1257483374458843136

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