A primary profession victory over a top-20 participant on clay. In heavy and sluggish circumstances. In a match that was suspended for about an hour due to rain.
Naomi Osaka couldn’t be happier together with her progress on the Italian Open, the place she beat Twentieth-ranked Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday to observe up one other straight-set win a day earlier.
Extra importantly, Osaka is in a great place mentally after returning to the tour from maternity go away that resulted in her lacking all of 2023.
“I don’t know why, however in the present day I simply awoke very peaceable,” Osaka stated. “I simply really feel like, it doesn’t matter what occurs on the courtroom, nothing will change for me off the courtroom. Like, my daughter will nonetheless love me. I’ve so many individuals round me. … I feel possibly that confirmed in the present day. I hope that mentality stays and continues.”
Osaka revealed points with melancholy and anxiousness when she withdrew from the French Open in 2021. She later took prolonged breaks from the sport to guard her psychological well being.
This 12 months’s French Open begins in lower than three weeks.
“I’m simply actually excited to study extra about clay-court (tennis) and develop and go to Paris,” Osaka stated. “Shai (her daughter) is coming to Paris, in order that’s one thing that’s conserving me very completely happy.”
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Previously ranked No. 1, Osaka received 4 Grand Slam titles on laborious courts and has at all times struggled on clay. Earlier than beating Kostyuk, Osaka was 0-8 in her profession in opposition to top-20 opponents on clay.
“I got here out with quite a lot of intentions, and I feel I executed them,” she stated. “I’m actually completely happy.”
Osaka held a break level when the rain suspension got here.
“I used to be fairly nervous coming again after the rain delay, simply realizing that I actually wish to capitalize on that break level,” she stated. “Excited that I used to be ready to try this.”
In her opening match, Osaka beat Forty fifth-ranked Clara Burel 7-6 (2), 6-1 for her first victory over a top-50 participant on clay since defeating Victoria Azarenka on the 2019 French Open.
“General, if I needed to give myself a score, I’d say that I can see quite a lot of progress from my final match to now,” she stated.
Osaka entered a small clay event in Rouen, France, final month and misplaced her opener to Martina Trevisan. Then she was crushed by Fifteenth-seeded Liudmila Samsonova in her second match on the Madrid Open.
After Madrid, Osaka went to Mallorca for some full-immersion clay coaching.
“I did a very stable block of simply specializing in what I would like my clay courtroom tennis to appear like,” Osaka stated. “I watched some movies. I watched Rafa (Nadal). I watched (Carlos) Alcaraz. I watched (Madrid champion Andrey) Rublev truly, which could be very inspiring as a result of he’s smacking the ball.
“I type of thought to myself, ‘I don’t wish to have regrets after I go away the courtroom.’ In Madrid I did type of have regrets of not swinging absolutely.”
Osaka will subsequent play Eleventh-ranked Daria Kasatkina, the highest-ranked participant she’s confronted this 12 months.
“She has far more expertise than me on clay. I really feel like I’m nonetheless a child giraffe, like I’m attempting to study my steps,” Osaka stated. “I’m simply extraordinarily humble. I wish to study from the match I performed in the present day and hopefully apply that.”