Osaka disappointed after defeat to teenage sensation Gauff: "You don't want to lose to a 15-year old"

Naomi Osaka, defending Australian Open champion lost to Coco Gauff in a victory which saw the latter show experience beyond her years to dump out the Japanese ace.

Osaka reflected afterwards and was understandably disappointed but not due to losing her title; but because of the age of her opponent.

“This one hurts a little bit more,” she admitted afterwards.

“It’s just tough. I love her, but I don't like this feeling of losing to her. You don't want to lose to a 15-year-old. I think it's because I have an age problem. I don't like losing to people that are younger than me, and there is hardly (any) people that are younger than me. I took this very personally.”

For Osaka, she added that she has to go back to the drawing board after the defeat and work even harder.

As well, she gave a word about her team and for Osaka, it adds to the disappointment that she couldn't deliver the end goal for them.

“I don't really have the champion mentality yet,” she mused. “Which is someone that can deal with not playing 100 per cent. I have always wanted to be like that, but I guess I still have a long way to go. It's just something that I think some people are born with, and some people have to have really hard trials and stuff to get it.”

“I feel bad for my entire team,” she said. “We came here to win the tournament, and I'm sort of the vessel that everyone's hard work is put into. And I wasn't able to do what I was supposed to do. And also my dad and my mom were here, so that kind of hurts more.”