Naomi Osaka makes honest admission about her failed attempt to stop being an 'overthinker' ahead of Citi Open campaign

Naomi Osaka pledged to practise not overthinking but later admitted that her efforts failed and she would try again the next day. Osaka made it to the third round of Wimbledon but succumbed to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in two sets.

Naomi Osaka has had mixed results in the past years since her pregnancy hiatus in 2023. She qualified for two quarterfinals in 2024 but suffered a couple of tough losses. In 2025, she advanced to the Auckland final, her first since 2022, but missed out on the win due to an abdominal injury.

She faced a first-round exit at the French Open and ended her Wimbledon run in the third round. Ahead of the Citi Open, where she will enter as a wildcard, the Japanese player pledged to stop overthinking and let life happen naturally.

"I’m practicing not being an overthinker. I’m just gonna let some things flow like water."

After a while, she posted another message on Threads, announcing that her attempt failed and she would try again the following day.

"Unfortunately my practicing did not work today, I will try again tomorrow"

Naomi Osaka posts her feelings on Threads; Threads - @naomiosaka

Osaka won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2022 and the US Open in 2018 and 2020.

Naomi Osaka found strength on the grass court at Wimbledon after years of struggle

Naomi Osaka at the BNP Paribas Open - Previews - (Source: Getty)

Naomi Osaka hasn't moved past the third round at Wimbledon, but was hopeful that the 2025 edition would be lucky for her. In a press meet after her second-round win over Katerina Siniakova, the former World No. 1 opened up about her struggles on the grass court that paralyzed her for years, but she has been finding confidence now and will hopefully post good results in the coming years.

"What's ironic is like at the beginning of the tournament when I did my press, I don't know who asked me this, but basically it was a question about like my first time playing on grass and then I had a solid thought about it and I realized like when I was younger I had no fear and I think when you're young you fear nothing and that's one of the really cool things about it."

She added:

"But I don't know, with age fear kind of crept along and I guess paralyzed me in a way so now I'm kind of just getting over that and trying to spread my wings on grass and I think it is working and I think I am moving pretty well and yeah, I just hope that in years to come and hopefully this year I can do a lot better in this tournament."

The 27-year-old was the first Asian player to reach No. 1 in the singles ranking. She was also the first Japanese player to win a major title.

Edited by Agnijeeta Majumder