At the Italian Open, Naomi Osaka has had a week filled with achievements. She defeated a top-50 opponent for the first time on clay since the 2019 French Open in the first round, and she defeated a top-20 player for the first time in her career in the second round.
She will play Daria Kasatkina in the third round, her first match against a player ranked that high since August 2022.
This will be Osaka and Kasatkina’s first encounter since Osaka’s victory in the 2018 Indian Wells final, which she won in straight sets. Additionally, they recently faced off in Madrid for practice, and Osaka didn’t fare well.
Despite not having reached a final, she is happy with the improvement she is making. She also disclosed that she trained in Mallorca and watched some tennis videos to prepare herself mentally for Rome.
Osaka claims that she has been motivated by various players and that she sincerely wants to be in the same boat as them.
She expressed her thoughts about it and said: “If I had to give myself a rating, I’d say that I can see a lot of progress from my last match to now. Honestly, I did a really solid job of just focusing on what I wanted my clay court tennis to look like. I watched some videos. I watched Rafa [Nadal]. I watched [Carlos] Alcaraz. I watched [Andrey] Rublev, which is very inspiring because he’s smacking the ball. I kind of thought to myself, like, I don’t want to have regrets when I leave the court.”
She added: “It’s not unprecedented (smiling). I’m very grateful to be back. I’m very grateful to be healthy because I know how much hard work it took for me to be here. Also, I am just very inspired by the players that I’m watching now. I’m watching a lot of tennis. I wish with my whole heart to be where they are, so I’m doing whatever it takes. I don’t know. I feel like I’m just clawing my way back to hopefully where I think I belong.”
Naomi Osaka says watching some players has inspired her, ‘I wish with my whole heart to be where they are’
“You'd never beaten a top-20 player on clay. Now you've beaten them twice in a row. Is there a connection from being away from the game and growing and learning and what's… pic.twitter.com/v1ZVOjVXXI
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 11, 2024
Osaka in Rome, ranking, and results in 2024
WWLWLWLWLL Now the world no.173, Naomi owns a composed 12-8 win-loss record in 2024. Osaka is competing in Rome where she toppled the world no.45 Clara Burel 7-62 6-1, the world no.20 Marta Kostyuk 6-3 6-2 and the world no.11 Daria Kasatkina 6-3 6-3.
Osaka won 7 titles in her career: all of them conquered on hard courts. (See the list of her titles)
