Naomi Osaka is curious to see how her recent success on the grass helps her perform heading into the next Grand Slam.
The four-time Grand Slam champion is seeded 11th at this week’s Canadian Open in Toronto. Osaka will be bidding to go one step further than 12 months ago when she reached the final of the tournament, which was held in Montreal. She was beaten by Victoria Mboko, who is currently sidelined from the Tour with a knee injury.
With 650 points to defend in the draw, Osaka is hoping for a good run at the WTA 1000 event ahead of the US Open. Last week she reached the semi-finals of the Washington Open before losing to eventual champion Alexandra Eala.
“I would just hope to gain a lot of confidence leading into New York,” Osaka said of her objective in Canada.
“I think I’ve been able to get like two solid matches under my belt, so just hopefully continuing to build that.
“I lost my last match (to Eala), but it’s helped me figure out what I want to do exactly, or how I want to take my tennis. So I just hope to continue that.”
The former world No.1 has reached the quarter-finals or better at her last three tournaments, with two of those being on grass. At Wimbledon she reached the last eight for the first time in her career. Before that, she reached her first Tour-level final on grass in Bad Homburg but retired during the final with injury.
“I’m a different player now in regards to grass; I feel a lot more comfortable coming into the net and just being aggressive and accepting the mistakes,” she said.
“I am curious to see how that would affect my hard court game (during the North American swing).”
Osaka is currently 22-9 in 2026 with one of those victories being over world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon. She is currently ranked 13th in the world.
The 28-year-old has been working with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski for just over a year, who is the former mentor of Iga Swiatek. Shedding light on their partnership, Osaka says the Pole’s honesty about her game has helped her improve.
“I would say he’s brought out the best tennis,” she said.
“He just tells me the truth all the time. Obviously we’re in this together, but there are moments where I dip, and he’ll tell me like, ‘hey, you need to get it together,’ or things like that.
“On the court he’s a really great coach. I just feel like we work really well together, so I’m excited to continue.”
In Toronto, Osaka will begin her campaign against Hungary’s Panna Udvardy. She could then potentially face Elise Mertens and Mirra Andreeva in the two following rounds.
