They woke me up at five in the morning and couldn't find my veins," Osaka says about a recent doping test
Last year, Naomi Osaka had the bad luck of facing Iga Swiatek in the first round of the French Open. Despite having match points, the Japanese player lost. This year, she will face world No. 10 Paula Badosa, once again making it one of the highlights of the first round.
During a press conference, the former world No. 1 mentioned the subject of doping tests, which she admits she doesn't necessarily enjoy:
"I have a difficult relationship with doping tests. They take your blood and urine samples. My veins are hard to find; it's something people are aware of. I was told it might be something related to Japanese people, though I'm not sure if that's true.
Once, they woke me up at five in the morning to take my blood. They couldn't find my veins. They made three attempts before succeeding. They were saying, 'I'll try this arm, then the other arm.' They came back later, and the same thing happened. I had bruises for a while.
Today, fortunately, I didn't have the same person, and everything went well. I wanted to go to the bathroom when they woke me up, so no problem.
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