Naomi Osaka fought her way—at times literally!—into the third round at the Australian Open past Sorana Cirstea in a terse three-setter. Osaka and Cirstea played out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 game that ended in Osaka’s favour at Margaret Court Arena on Thursday night before the pair exchanged a fleeting handshake over the net.
Cirstea then threw daggers at Osaka with a look before turning her head away. This got even Osaka intrigued and as they walked toward the umpire’s chair, Osaka asked, “What was that for?”
Cirstea responded directly to the two-time Australian Open winner, upset with the Japanese ace’s efforts to pump herself up at stages during the match.
“Apparently a lot of ‘C’mons’ that she was angry about but whatever. I think this was her last Australian Open so, OK, sorry she was mad about it,” Osaka said at her post-match interview when asked about the frosty exchange at the net.
Videos of the second round match showed Cirstea arguing with the chair umpire about Osaka pumping herself up with a “come on”, which the Romanian took exception to.
“Is this okay? To (shout) ‘come on’ between points?” she asked the chair umpire.
The chair umpire replied: “Between serves? Yeah, you hadn’t gotten the ball either. This is fine.”
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To this, Cirstea retorted: “So I can talk between points?”
The chair umpire then told her firmly that players could talk between first and second serves, but not during points.
“You’re not serving yet. So it’s not a hindrance to you. So this was okay.”
Osaka, who let out her loudest ‘come on’ at the end of the game, then got emotional in her on-court interview when asked about the tension with the 35-year-old Romanian.
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“She could have asked me (to stop),” the Japanese ace said. “Honestly … no one’s ever complained about it before. Also the umpire didn’t tell me I was wrong — the umpire said I was fine. Like, I thought we moved past it.”
She said she was open to talking it over with Cirstea.
“I guess that emotions were very high for her. I also want to apologize,” Osaka said later at a press conference. “I think the first couple things that I said on the court was disrespectful. I don’t like disrespecting people. That’s not what I do.”
Cirstea said the issue was blown out of proportion and she’d prefer to reflect on her decades of experience at the Australian Open.
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“There was no drama. It was just a five-second exchange between two players that have been on tour for a long time,” she said. “It stays between us.”
(With inputs from AP)
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