Naomi Osaka upset in Western & Southern Open third round, raised nearly $50,000 for Haiti relief
Naomi Osaka’s run at the Western & Southern Open was much shorter than she had hoped it would be.
Her presence at the Cincinnati event, however, certainly did a lot of good.
Osaka pledged ahead of the tournament to donate any winnings to relief efforts in Haiti following last week’s earthquake. The Western & Southern Financial Group said Thursday morning that it would match her, too.
While Osaka fell on Thursday night to Jil Teichmann 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, she still raised nearly $50,000.
“I was definitely really happy about that,” Osaka said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I’m kind of sad now that I couldn’t have gone further, but I think the main thing was to raise awareness and I feel like I did that pretty well. Overall, I’m just glad that we were able to contribute something.”
Osaka walked away with $24,200 in prize money for her third round appearance. Doubled with the donation from the tournament’s title sponsor, she raised $48,400.
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Western & Southern Financial Group, the title sponsor of #CincyTennis, will match @naomiosaka's pledged donation of her prize money at this week’s tournament to Haiti’s earthquake relief efforts. pic.twitter.com/JClB7LFEJ9— Western & Southern Open (@CincyTennis) August 19, 2021
Osaka announced on Twitter on Saturday afternoon that she would donate all winnings to help the island nation, where her dad was born, after a massive magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck that morning.
More than 2,100 people had died as of Wednesday night, according to CBS News, and more than 12,000 people had been injured. The earthquake — which came about a month after former president Jovenel Moise was assassinated — struck about five miles from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes in the southwestern part of Haiti.
Osaka’s loss to Teichmann marks her second-straight third round loss. She was eliminated by Marketa Vondrousova in the third round at the Tokyo Olympics last month.
“I also thought that my performance in Tokyo was lingering in my mind a bit because I felt like I was a little too aggressive there,” she said Thursday, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I feel like I learned a lot from this match today and I thought that if there’s anything to take away from this, I tried my best throughout the entire match.”
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