“She Smelled Expensive” Naomi Osaka Says About Beyonce

Japanese sensation Naomi Osaka has revealed her excitement at meeting her idol Beyonce, saying the US singer “smelled expensive” and gave her a morale-boosting pep talk at a low point last year according to AFP.

The two-time Grand Slam champion, who will be defending her Australian Open title this month, bumped into Beyonce and her husband Jay-Z while still “depressed” after losing in the fourth round at the US Open.

“I met Beyonce and Jay-Z during the off-season. She just smelled expensive and beautiful and she was soft and she hugged me, I was like, this is what heaven is.”

The meeting came in the aftermath of Osaka’s defeat at Flushing Meadow to Belinda Bencic, which ended her first Grand Slam title defense.

In the words of the tennis star who stunned Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open final:

She was talking to me and she said she was proud of me. I thought, wow, that actually was a really important moment, I felt really depressed after I lost my match, but I’m thinking about the impact that tennis players. I don’t think we know, I don’t think we’re aware of all the good that we can do. That was kind of an eye-opening thing. Even though it was one of my worst points, to lose, I wanted to be a defending champion and I lost early there’s still something really good that came out of that.

There are some things that I have to remember are out of my control, especially past events. So I just have to put myself in a position to not regret anything.

Osaka hired a new coach in the off-season, Wim Fissette, after she split with Jermaine Jenkins following the US Open, and said she was raring to go after her 2019 season was abruptly cut short by injury at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen. She is set to play her first match of the year at the Brisbane International against Maria Sakkari on Tuesday.

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese professional tennis player. She is the reigning champion in women’s singles at the Australian Open. Osaka has been ranked No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. She has won five titles on the WTA Tour, including two titles at both the Grand Slam and Premier Mandatory levels.