Fissette:Naomi Osaka is going into US Open with mentality of wanting to win the event

Wim Fissette, the coach of two-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, says that the former US Open champion will be going into the American Grand Slam event in New York with the intention of winning the tournament.

Wim Fissette says Noami Osaka is going into the US Open with the mentality to win the event

The 40 year old Belgian spoke to the Tennis Majors website and recently joined Osaka in Los Angeles and has been preparing her for the upcoming return of the tennis circuit. "Naomi is going to go into it with the mentality of wanting to win the tournament. It’s not going to be different. Of course, our expectations shouldn’t be that she’s going to play perfect tennis right away. Expectations will be a bit lower on the level of play maybe in the beginning, but obviously the mentality to try to win the tournaments. That’s what she’s there for. Working with a player like Naomi, ambition should be to win the tournament. I’m not saying that she’s going to win, but the ambition is definitely to win the tournaments."

Fissette says Osaka has dealt with the current shutdown quite well since she has focussed on the other interests outside of tennis, during the current lockdown. "She’s someone with different interests in life, she’s been working on some projects. Also, it was not bad for her to have a few months off. All these players, they’ve played tennis since they’re four, five or six years old and then it’s a journey without a stop. For sure it made her realize again or confirm how much she loves to play tennis and how much she loves to compete. She missed tennis after a while and is happy to train and compete again. She went through this time like without much concern.

The Belgian also said that he is not concerned about the season being short or interrupted once again. "If the season is all over after the French Open, well, we’ll take some time off and then have a good pre-season. At the moment we cannot really predict what’s going to happen anyway. Maybe we’re going to have a vaccine in a month or two months or maybe 2021 is going to be a normal year."

Wim Fissette has worked with several tennis champions in the past, including Victoria Azarenka, Kim Clijsters, Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber and Johanna Konta. He has started working with Osaka at the start of the 2020 season.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2XCrlgp