Naomi Osaka is about to start her run at the Madrid Open after missing playing on clay courts for 2 years. The Japanese sensation has proved multiple times to be one of the top players in the world, if not the best when competing on hard courts. Naomi Osaka already won 4 slams but all of them were staged on hard courts.
Nevertheless, Naomi is very keen to have some more success on different surfaces aiming to win the slams in Paris and Wimbledon.
During the press conference that the big seeds the Madrid Open, Osaka confirmed that she had some doubts about her performance on clay-courts.
“I haven’t touched clay in two years either. I’m just going in here just trying to have fun and trying to build, I guess, match play for French. It’s really hard to tell [how I will perform] because I can’t remember how I felt the last time I was here playing, but I do know that I think I’m hitting the ball pretty well. I can only hope that for now, that’s good enough. Maybe when I play my matches I’ll be able to adjust a lot better.
As of right now, I don’t really have that much experience to be able to tell what’s good on clay and what’s not good on clay.”
Naomi Osaka is seeded number 2 in Madrid. She has the luxury to face a qualifier in her first round. The Japanese champion played only three times in the Spanish capital and her best result was achieved in 2019 when she reached the quarter-final before losing in three sets to Belinda Bencic.
Naomi Osaka in 2021
Ranked world no.2, Naomi played her last match on the 31st of March when she lost to world no.19 Maria Sakkari 6-0 6-4 in the quarter in Miami (draw).
This year Naomi achieved an overall 12-1 record. The Japanese clinched 1 title at the Australian Open.
Naomi Osaka |
| Embed from Getty Images |
