Serena Williams burst into tears and abruptly ended her post-game press conference after her loss to Naomi Osaka in the semi-finals at the 2021 Australian Open on Wednesday.
Naomi, 23, easily defeated Williams 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the 2021 Australian Open final.
Serena embraced Naomi at the net after her defeat. Naomi, who holds a 3-2 record over Serena, denied the superstar her chance to win her 24th career Grand Slam singles title, which she’s been chasing since 2018.
The 39-year-old mom-of-one lost her composure during the post-match press conference after she was asked if she was saying her final “farewell” to the Australian Open.
“Some people wondered if… you were almost saying farewell,” said the reporter.
“I don’t know. If I ever say farewell, I wouldn’t tell anyone,” Serena laughed.
But it was apparent that the question affected her emotionally.
Serena fought back tears as a different reporter asked if her “unforced errors” were caused by “a bad day at the office.”
“I don’t know… I’m done,” she said, before rising from her seat and walking away.
