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Naomi Osaka ready to challenge Ashleigh Barty and the rest of the pack starting from Brisbane

Naomi seems to be in a fantastic mental space ahead of her 2020 run.

2 January 2020

Naomi Osaka seems to be in a very good mental space. The Japanese sensation will start the new season ranked no.3 and she is feeling in a great mood comparing to 12 months ago. Naomi admitted that at the beginning of 2019 she was still trying to find her way. Even if she managed to win the Australian Open, her world (sort of) caved in soon after. She parted ways with her coach Sascha Bajin and she was struggling with being famous and under pressure.

Osaka and Barty

This year, Naomi is a “new person” and a better version of herself. She will kickstart the new season in Brisbane and she is well aware that one of the biggest challenges will be to counter Ashleigh Barty besides getting the better of the other players.

The world no.3 commented:

“That’s the mentality going into this year. Last year I had to figure a lot of stuff out and a lot of people could see that and towards the end of the year is when things started clicking for me. I love Australia … so I’m excited to start here.”

Talking about Ashleigh, she commented: “She has a lot of variety, her serve’s really pinpoint and she has the best slice on tour.”

Her coach Wim Fissette

Naomi had 4 different coaches in 2019 and the last one was Wim Fissette that decided to leave Vika Azarenka’s camp to join Osaka. Wim has coached many top players such as Kim Clijsters, Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, and Petra Kvitova. He will definitely give a strong contribution to Naomi’s cause in 2020.

Naomi Osaka’s ranking and performance in 2020

Now ranked no.3, Naomi played her last match on the 27^th of October when she defeated Petra Kvitova 7-6¹ 4-6 6-4 in the round robin in Shenzhen.

Ashleigh Barty’s ranking and performance in 2020

Now ranked no.1, Barty played her last match on the 10^th of November when she was defeated by Kristina Mladenovic 2-6 6-4 7-6¹ in the Rubber 3 of the Fed Cup.

Naomi Osaka and Ashleigh Barty played each other 4 times. The head to head is 2-2.

The last time that they squared off, Naomi Osaka won 3-6 6-3 6-2 in the final in Beijing (China Open) in October 2019.

Here the highlights.