Naomi Osaka glides onto self-confidence and her abilities to gain victories
"I want to be inside the top 100...top 50 by the end of the year", Naomi Osaka had proclaimed two years ago about her goals for 2016 as she reported to the media 'tennismood.com'. Today she is the youngest WTA player ranked in the top five in the world. It was back then that she was wrestling with many issues from learning Japanese (a heritage of her mom's), Creole (from her Haitian father's side) and overcoming her self-doubt on being consistent on the court and earning victories.
In the summer of 2014, Osaka had these goals and qualified for her first WTA main draw at the 2014 Stanford Classic upsetting no. 19 then, Samantha Stosur. The young Japanese was ranked 406 and entered the qualifying round of Wimbledon and the US Open but wasn't able to play in the main draw of either one. She did play the Rising Stars Invitational four-player exhibition tournament defeating France's Caroline Garcia in the final. She could feel her professional life change and escalate after playing a semifinal in Japan, finishing the 2015 season at no. 144.
"I want to climb up the rankings. I want to play all the Grand Slams and get as far as I can. I know it sounds crazy, but hope I can get to the finals", she said half smiling but yet again serious. Since then she's gotten into tons of finals, more than she thought. She had then closed in on the top 100 and was allowed to enter WTA tour-level tournaments qualifying for her first Grand Slam main draw at the Australian Open which she reached the third round. She upset Elina Svitolina in straight sets at the Melbourne and then defeated Sara Errani cracking the WTA top 100 for the first time. The French Open was another wish of Osaka's and she made it there winning her opening set against Simona Halep. She sustained an ankle injury later and was on the mend for nearly two months, but with intense therapy, she came back to court duties with the grass season.
Osaka had a shot at her first grass-court match of the season but lost in the opening round to Kristie Ahn at Nottingham. "I had goals starting this tournament, but now I just want to win a match before Wimbledon, hopefully...People say the grass is supposed to be good for my game, but I don't know. I'm just so depressed right now. I like hard-courts the most", Osaka said rather dejected (as mentioned from Abigail Johnson's 'The Tennis Journal'). She was determined not to let an opening loss get her down and fought hard making it to the third round of Wimbledon last year defeating no. 23 Barbora Strycova. Osaka also went to the third round at the US Open win over Angelique Kerber. Before closing out 2017, she managed to have a victory over Venus Williams at the Hong Kong Open, her last event of the season.
No one really knows exactly can get into a player's head and make their entire game change but it happened this year for the better with Naomi Osaka. Things weren't going as well as she wanted so she hired Sascha Bajin to be her coach in the offseason. It was their second tournament that the young Japanese reached the fourth round at the Australian Open defeating Elena Vesnina and hometown favourite Ashleigh Barty. The next month she was ranked in the top 50.
Indian Wells was her breakthrough as she had defeated Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep to win the title from another rising star, Daria Kasatkina. In the glazing hot suns of California, Osaka was sizzling with cross-court passes, down the lines and corner placements that the Russian couldn't predict or get to. The Japanese did her signature sun visor adjustments and nods for another ball as she zipped to an opening set win. But despite Kasatkina's oftentimes clever rallies, Osaka always was there for the answer of another outstanding return negating her opponents winning shots. The title Osaka and even though her acceptance speech was a bit rusty, as she was acknowledged by the fans and tennis community. "I would like to thank Dasha for being super-nice and for also being a really cool person to play against...I'm pretty sure we're going to play a lot of finals and stuff later..." she would snuggle and giggle saying. But during the press conference, she began to let it soak in that finally she was a title holder saying "I really feel like I have another match I have to play tomorrow and it really didn't sink in that I won...I'm happy..." She has a great philosophy on coping with situations saying about playing in the Indian Wells final "...In this match, I really wanted to win this...I just tried to think it was a first-round match and just not psyche myself out too much...I just knew that she was going to fight for every point too, so I couldn't afford to lose points based on nerves and I had to keep making the right decisions..." From her first maiden title at Indian Wells, this propelled her into a higher level and then was ranked at no. 22. There was a third round play at the French Open and Wimbledon this year and a semifinal at Nottingham which sparked her self-reliance in herself that she can play decisively and defeat many players especially top ones.
Osaka made her mark on the tour by winning the title over Serena Williams at the US Open which Osaka described as "a little bittersweet" and "it wasn't necessarily the happiest moment". But it was a grand slam title no less. She made history as the first Japanese to win a grand slam and had gone on to enter the season-ending WTA Finals at Singapore. Injury stuck Osaka again as she was playing the opening set with Kiki Bertens. "I hurt my left hamstring in the first match. It was just getting worse and worse every time I played. I couldn't even really practice that well today", she tearfully said. She had to retire and end her season, not on the best note.
Naomi Osaka can spin out many emotions and strategies on the court but most of all she has elevated her drive, determination and techniques to satisfy her goals of victories on tour. She is able to stay more focused and despite her relative calmness and control at gametime, she has learned to channel her nerves and energy into making the appropriate shots at the right time to produce more victories and in the coming season probably more titles.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2LDc1ci
No comments