Naomi Osaka drew a silly smiley face on theAustralian Open camera lens after her second-round win.- She then made fun of her artistic abilities — or lack thereof — in her post-match press conference.
Naomi Osaka has many talents.
But
After her 6-0, 6-4 win over American Madison Brengle in the second round of the Australian Open Wednesday, the 24-year-old
After her tournament-opening win on Sunday, she took the opportunity to promote her boyfriend Cordae's new album on the camera. This time, the reigning Australian Open champion simply wrote "Hi everybody" on the lens.
But then she pushed her artistic limits a bit too far. Osaka added a smiley face underneath her note, but as she added more details, she began to critique her own work.
"Jesus!" she exclaimed mid-doodle. "Oh my god. It didn't get better, eh?"
After stepping back and grimacing, she passed the blue marker off and said "I don't know, sorry!" Needless to say, Osaka was fairly embarrassed about the whole ordeal:
—NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) January 19, 2022
"Clearly I can't really draw that well, so I always resort back to drawing the same weird smiley face hand thing," Osaka explained during her post-match press conference. "I always have a plan of what I want to draw and then it never really ends up looking the way I picture in my head, so it's a little embarrassing."
The former world No. 1 also noted that artistic talent runs in her family. Her sister, Mari Osaka, is a noted artist. Just this week, the Osaka sisters collaborated to drop an NFT collection inspired by Naomi but designed by Mari.
"Resolve: The Naomi Osaka Manga Collection" becomes available to the general public beginning Thursday.
"It's also embarrassing that my sister is a really good artist and I can't even draw a proper smiley face," Osaka said with a frown during the press conference.
Check out her comments below:
This isn't the first time Osaka poked fun at her own artistic abilities. During last year's Australian Open, the right-handed hard hittertried to draw a cat alongside her signature but was disappointed with the result.
"It's ugly!" she proclaimed mid-masterpiece.
Her experience this year wasn't too far off. If it's any consolation, Osaka went on to dominate the field and win her fourth Grand Slam title after drawing her less-than-ideal cat
Perhaps the smiley face mishap will provide similar luck in 2022. The superstar is set to face American Amanda Anisimova on Thursday. Should she win, Osaka could be faced with a megawatt fourth-round showdown against Ashleigh Barty — the Australian world No. 1 who won Wimbledon last year.