Naomi Osaka has just won her 4th slam at the Australian Open to be more and more the face of tennis. The Japanese sensation now has 7 titles under her belt, and all of them are on hard courts. So, what not going for more on other surfaces? And what about winning the French Open and Wimbledon?
After her success in Melbourne, Naomi reflected on the possibility of doing well on other surfaces and then having a shot at winning the French Open and Wimbledon. Naomi believes that she has everything to succeed. Probably she needs just to play more matches on clay and grass to feel comfortable:
“I feel like I have everything that I need to do well on clay and on grass, but it’s just about feeling comfortable. I don’t think I feel totally comfortable on either surface because I didn’t really play on red clay or grass growing up and I’ve played on hard basically my whole life. So, yeah, just more experience,” said Naomi.
Naomi’s coach Wim Fissette has a long experience with top players and therefore he has the luxury of making proper comparisons and creating benchmarks.
Wim also coached Kim Clijsters that was struggling to play on the dirt. According to Wim, the real issue was the number of matches played on that surface, and Kim didn’t have many. Therefore, it was easy for her to have doubts when competing on clay.
“I remember in the past when, a long time ago, when I was working with Kim and she didn’t play many tournaments on clay. She was playing great tennis, but as soon as she would miss a few balls, she would doubt a lot of things,” said Fissette.
“She would doubt her game plan; she would doubt, like, oh, maybe I should have gone bigger on this ball, maybe I should have been more patient on this ball. I think when you don’t have a lot of experience of success on those surfaces, that’s easy to start doubting,” he added.
According to Wim, to avoid Naomi having the same problems, she needs to play on these surfaces as much as possible to gain more experience. Nevertheless, he mantaines that she has everything to succeed on both clay and grass.
“So for me, we have to use opportunities to play a lot of matches, hopefully be successful, but otherwise also learn from those losses eventually. And then I’m sure she will be successful on both surfaces. Maybe this year, but if not this year, probably next year. But I don’t see any restrictions of her playing well on those surfaces,” said Wim.
Osaka’s record at the French Open and Wimbledon
Naomi has a 6-4 win/loss record at the French Open. Her best result was just reaching the 3rd round in 2016, 2018, 2019. In her last appearance (2019), she lost to Siniakova in straight sets 6-4 6-2 (see all matches)
Naomi’s performance in Wimbledon is not any better. The Japanese star has an unimpressive 4-4 win/loss record. Her best result was just reaching the 3rd round (2017, 2018). The last time she played the Championship in 2019 she lost to Putintseva 7-6 (4) 6-2. (see all matches)
Naomi Osaka in 2021
Ranked no.2, the Japanese played her last match on the 20th of February when she beat Jennifer Brady 6-4 6-3 in the final of the Australian Open to win her 7th career title.
This season Naomi has achieved a compiled 10-0 record. Naomi clinched 1 title at the Australian Open.
