Naomi Osaka experienced a meteoric rise over the last 1 year and a half from being “nobody” (as per Naomi’s words) to be the world no.1 and the new tennis sensation.
All this success was difficult to process for Osaka especially after she parted ways with her coach Sascha Bajin that was a very important part of her rise. After this split, before Stuttgart Naomi had an unflattering 3-3 win-loss record (see stats) after some tentative runs in Dubai, Indian Wells, and Miami.
Osaka in Stuttgart
After being away from competitions for 1 month, Naomi was back on tour in Stuttgart where she is also kick-starting her clay court season. The Japanese was opposed to Su-Wei Hsieh that is a player she doesn’t like to face because of her wicked variations. However, Naomi managed to win that match rather easily with an excellent 6-4 6-3 scoreline.
Naomi Osaka about being depressed
The world no.1 was particularly happy after beating the Taiwanese to comment
“I am really grateful for everyone that has been really positive towards me. It was really rough the last couple of months. The kid was depressed out there.
If there is one positive thing that I can say about myself, it is that I learn quickly. Definitely, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself and found it hard to deal with in the first few tournaments. Now I start trying to have fun out there, which is what I did before I was number one.”
Naomi experienced a similar situation last year after she won Indian Wells coming from nowhere.
Naomi will face Donna Vekic in the quarters. The head to head is 1-0 for the Japanese that defeated the Croatian 6-3 6-2 in the first round of the Australian Open back in 2016.
| ALL FINE? |
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