Two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka claims she “almost died” during a paddleboarding mishap.
The world No 4 was on holiday in the Turks and Caicos Islands when she experienced a scare.
“She [my sister] made me paddleboard and then the current took us and I almost died,” Osaka said in an interview on the WTA website.
“I’ve never gone paddleboarding. I don’t like the ocean like that ... So we went paddleboarding next to the house.
“Suddenly we hit a current and I’m freaking out a little bit because the house is getting further ... I’m like, ‘how far out are you trying to take us?’... the water is black and the house is like a tiny dot, and I can’t really swim that well.
“And then I fall in the water, so now I’m like thinking about all the sharks in the Caribbean and I was like screaming at her, like, If you, if I die, this is on you. You’re going to have to tell mom how I died in the Turks and Caicos (laughing).
“Yeah, so I’m like crying, and then I get back on the board and then she decides that she wants to say that she sees a shark. So now I’m like screaming and crying, and I was fine, though, because I’m here. But in that moment I just really thought, like, I don’t want to die like that. Yeah, that’s the end of the story.”
Osaka is the third seed at the Brisbane International this week in what is the traditional warmup for the Australian Open. Australia’s world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova are also playing.
