Martina Navratilova says Naomi Osaka celebrating between Sorana Cirstea's serves was 100 percent wrong and has urged the Japanese to avoid doing that ever again – at least loudly.
Cirstea, a three-time WTA champion who is playing her final season on the Tour, was visibly irate after arriving at the net for a traditional post-match handshake. And the 35-year-old Romanian made sure to let the Japanese aware of what was the problem.
As the Romanian veteran was airing out her frustration, Osaka – who claimed a 6-3 4-6 6-2 win in their Australian Open second-round match – appeared to be stunned by the entire situation. Shortly after when conducting an on-court interview, the former world No. 1 shaded her rival by saying that she was "probably mad because it was her last Australian Open."
Later in her post-match press conference, Osaka admitted that her on-court remarks were "disrespectful" and publicly apologized to Cirstea.
When sharing her thoughts on the entire situation, Navratilova understood why the Japanese reacted the way she did after the match. However, the tennis icon also underlined that it was not fair for the 28-year-old to celebrate Cirstea's missed serves.
Navratilova slams Osaka: You cannot be talking out loud between first and second serves of your rival
"I can get what she said after the match because it was just this heat of the moment. She was surprised by Cirstea's reaction at the handshake," the former 18-time Grand Slam champion said on Tennis Channel.
"You cannot be talking out loud between first and second serves of your opponent. Cirstea was ready to hit the second serve when Osaka says, 'Come on!' That's not right. I don't think she did it on purpose. She didn't realize it. You can say 'Come on!' all you want, but keep it inside."
Meanwhile, when Cirstea was asked to address the incident, she shrugged it off as "nothing big" and refused to speak too much about it.
