Naomi Osaka admitted she is feeling ‘nostalgic’ about working with her father again after reaching the third round at the China Open.
The two-time grand slam champion was in no mood to hang about as she thrashed Andrea Petkovic 6-2 6-0 in Beijing to reach the last 16.
In 58 minutes, Osaka managed to break her German opponent on five occasions as she continued her march towards qualifying for the WTA Finals.
Recent good form has been a boost for the 21 year-old, who recently split up with former coach Jarmere Jenkins and is now working with her father, Leonard Francois.
When speaking about working with her dad, Osaka described the feeling as ‘nostalgic’ and explains why he’s the perfect coach for her, “It took me back a little bit because he’s always been around, but he’s been in the shadows for the most part,” Osaka explained to wtatennis.com.
“I would say he is a person that knows my game the most. He’s kind of the person that knows the trigger words, whether good or bad.”
This new approach seems to be working for Osaka, who is now looking for a more aggressive approach to matches, “I just tried to be very aggressive,” she said.
“I feel like she (Petkovic) wants to be close to the baseline most of the time. Right off the bat I felt like I had to get her moving. I think I did that well.”
The world number four will need to channel that aggression in her next match when she plays Wuhan finalist Alison Riske.
Another good win for the American, this time over Ajla Tomljanovic in a 6-3 3-6 6-4 victory as she continues her magnificent second half of the season.
However, the player that Riske lost to in the Wuhan final is out as Aryna Sabalenka fell to a 6-4 7-6(5) loss to Daria Kasatkina.
There were also losses on Tuesday for 10th seed Angelique Kerber and 12th seed Sloane Stephens, who both lost in straight sets to Polona Hercog and Saisai Zheng.
