Former world No.1 Naomi Osaka has vowed to approach the upcoming clay swing ‘really seriously’ in hope that she can continue her momentum from the Miami Open.
Osaka, who has fallen to 77th in the rankings, produced one of her best runs in recent time at the American WTA 1000 event with wins over Angelique Kerber, Danielle Collins and Belinda Bencic. It was the first time she had reached a Tour final since the 2021 Australian Open 13 months ago. However, she was denied the title by Iga Swiatek who defeated her 6-4, 6-0, on Saturday.
“Iga was quite different from all the players that I’ve played previously, so it was a bit hard to adjust to what she was doing. But I think hopefully, if I play her next time, it will be a much better match,” said Osaka.
“I’m not as disappointed as I normally would be, like I think normally I would be crying in the locker room or something, but now I’m kind of like chilled. I feel like I know what I want to do better, and I just want to go back and start training again to like hopefully win a tournament next time.”
The next test for Osaka will be the clay which is a surface that she has had limited success on so far in her career. She is yet to reach the final of a clay court event on the WTA Tour and is yet to go beyond the third round at Roland Garros.
However, the 24-year-old is eager to prove that she can also be a threat on the European dirt. Her next tournament will be at the Madrid Open which is played at a higher altitude than other events during this time of the season. Meaning that the balls will travel quicker which will benefit heavy-hitting players such as Osaka.
“I’m gonna try to take this clay court season really seriously, so I’m actually going to go to Europe a week before to train on the red clay,” she said.
“I’m clearly not a clay expert but I feel like if I get my movement together, I should be pretty good. I grew up on green clay so it shouldn’t be that foreign to me.’
“(Aryna) Sabalenka won (Madrid) that last year, so I think that there are opportunities for me to do well, as well.”
Guiding Osaka on the Tour is coach Wim Fissette whom she has been working with since 2019. Fissette has also previously collaborated with the likes of Kerber, Victoria Azarenka and Johanna Konta. One of the areas Osaka says she wants to work on following her loss to Switek relates to her strategy during matches.
“I would say for me right now there is a plan A and a plan B, and the plan A wasn’t working (in the Miami final). The plan B is to get more balls in the court. But like doing that, I hit a bit slower, and I can’t do that against her (Swiatek) because she just comes in automatically,” she explains.
“I think I need to find a way to make my base bigger. It will be interesting to see how that goes on clay.”
So far in her career Osaka’s best clay season was in 2019 when she reached the semi-finals in Stuttgart, as well making quarter-final appearances in Madrid and Rome.
This year’s Madrid Open will begin on April 26th.
