"She smacked me bad, it was actually embarrassing" - Naomi Osaka recalls having to apologize to Daria Kasatkina in practice ahead of Italian Open 3R

Naomi Osaka advanced to the third round of the 2024 Italian Open in the women's singles draw after beating Marta Kostyuk on Thursday, May 9. In her post-match presser, she answered a couple of questions about her next opponent Daria Kasatkina.

Osaka bettered Kostyuk 6-2, 6-3 on the back of five break points. Also, the Ukrainian committed a staggering seven double faults that led to her crashing out of the draw. The Japanese had ousted Clara Burel in the first round.

In her presser on Thursday, Osaka guessed Kasatkina's ranking wrong to begin with. She believed the Russian to be World No. 10 but she's 11.

"I think she's my first top-10 player I'm playing this year, no? Am I crazy? She's 10, c'mon," Osaka said.

Notably, Osaka and Kasatkina met each other for a joint practice session at the recently concluded Madrid Open, where the Japanese claimed to have faced humiliation.

"Yeah, honestly, like, I think I've said this before, but she smacked me in Madrid real bad. It was actually embarrassing. I felt like I had to apologize to her after that practice," the four-time Grand Slam champion added.

Both Osaka and Kasatkina failed to perform big in Madrid as the former crashed out with a second-round loss at the hands of Liudmila Samsonova and the World No. 11 bowed out after faltering against Yulia Putintseva in the fourth round.

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Naomi Osaka: "I'm going into this match knowing that Daria Kasatkina has way more experience than me on clay"

Naomi Osaka

During the same interaction with the media on Thursday at the 2024 Italian Open, Naomi Osaka accepted Daria Kasatakina to be the better claycourt player than her. She said:

"I'm going into this match knowing that she [Daria Kasatkina] has way more experience than me on clay. I feel like I'm still a baby giraffe, like I'm trying to learn my steps. I'm just extremely humble. I want to learn from the match I played today and hopefully apply that."

The former World No. 1 then praised Kasatkina and her brother Alexandr, saying:

"I know she's an amazing player. She does really well. She moves really well. Overall I'm just really excited. She's so nice and her brother is really kind, too."

Naomi Osaka and Daria Kasatkina have played against each other only once thus far. The two met in the summit clash of the 2018 Indian Wells Open where the Japanese claimed the win to secure the title.