“Hi. I just wanted to say thank you. Yeah I feel like I’ve cried enough on camera but I just wanted to say,” she started, before being forced to cut her sentence short as she wiped her tears away.
“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before, like it didn’t really bother me.
“But heckled here [Indian Wells], I’ve watched a video of Venus and Serena get heckled here and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it.”
Explaining that the previous incident had sidetracked her in the first set, she added: “And I don’t know why but it went into my head and it got replayed a lot.
“I’m trying not to cry. But I just wanted to say thank you and congratulations [to Kudermetova]. Yeah, just thank you.”
Osaka’s comparison to the Williams’ sisters incident has led many to speculate whether the heckler said anything more offensive to the 24-year-old.
