Naomi Osaka mentioned she had taken a leaf out of Novak Djokovic’s tactical playbook and tweaked her return sport on the Qatar Open after the previous girls’s world primary earned back-to-back wins for the primary time in nearly two years.
The 26-year-old from Japan struggled to seek out her rhythm after returning to the circuit final month following a 15-month break kind the tour throughout which she had her first youngster.
Osaka misplaced within the second spherical in Brisbane in her first event again earlier than falling on the first hurdle on the Australian Open and in Abu Dhabi.
Nevertheless, after beating fifteenth seed Caroline Garcia, who defeated her at Melbourne Park, within the Doha first spherical she confirmed glimpses of her greatest kind in a 6-3 7-6(9) win over Petra Martic on Tuesday to achieve the final 16.
A technical tweak could have helped, she mentioned.
“I did change my return – I don’t wish to say ‘model’ however I suppose kind. I don’t know the way to describe it,” the four-times Grand Slam champion advised reporters.
“Like, earlier than I used to be taking one step, one step, after which leaping in, however now I’m simply leaping in with each ft, as a result of apparently Djokovic does that, so why not copy the most effective returner on the earth?”
Osaka, who final received two straight matches at tour degree in 2022 on the Miami Open, mentioned {that a} dialog with coach Wim Fissette sparked the changes to her sport.
“It was irritating realizing that my serve is among the greatest serves, dare I say, on the earth,” Osaka added.
“However I simply actually needed to work on the issues I do know ought to be lots higher and the return was considered one of them. We have been speaking about it lots within the low season and leaving Melbourne, undoubtedly wanted to enhance it.”
Osaka takes on Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko in a while Wednesday.