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Sports, Tennis

I almost died: Osaka on paddleboard accident


Bangladeshpost
Published : 06 Jan 2020 06:40 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 09:33 AM

Tennis players typically use the off-season to rest and recover from their punishing schedules but two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka says she suffered a “near-death experience” while paddleboarding with her sister in the Caribbean, Reuters reports.

The 22-year-old world number four, who begins the season at the Brisbane International this week, said they had been on vacation in the Turks and Caicos Islands when the incident happened. "She made me paddleboard and then the current took us and I almost died," Osaka said in an interview with the WTA website here "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. Osaka said things took a turn for the worse when she fell into the water and panicked. “Now I’m thinking about all the sharks in the Caribbean and I was screaming at her,” she added, laughing.