Naomi Osaka celebrates her victory against Caroline Garcia during her women’s singles match at the Australian Open.©AFP
Naomi Osaka said Monday she was struggling to stay focused on the Australian Open with the deadly and massive wildfires ravaging Los Angeles “three blocks” from her home. The two-time champion from Melbourne beat France’s Caroline Garcia 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the first round and said afterwards: “I was looking at the fire map and the fire is three blocks from my house. I asked someone to go get my daughter’s birth certificate The 27-year-old former world number one, who has a young daughter named Shai, represents Japan but lives in Los Angeles.
After setting up a second-round encounter at Melbourne Park with Czech 20th seed Karolina Muchova, Osaka said “I honestly don’t think I made the greatest effort to stay focused.”
“It’s really hard for me because, I don’t know, I think it’s harder now because I find that now my house is more of a home because I have memories with my daughter.
“There are so many things, memories and things like that. Obviously you can’t accumulate them all when you’re asking them to go to your house and just collect stuff. So it’s very difficult in this meaning.”
At least 24 people were killed in fires that ravaged the second-largest city in the United States last week.
Entire communities were reduced to rubble and thousands were left homeless.
Osaka said everyone in her family is safe, but she “checks the wildfire map every chance I get, just to see what’s going on.”
“I also feel like in some ways it’s difficult because I don’t think I’ll go back to Los Angeles immediately afterwards. I don’t think it’s safe enough to go back,” he said. -she declared.
“It’s a bit in limbo, but it also motivates me to hope to stay here as long as possible.”
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