Tennis NZ's Simon Rea 'Vivian Yang resembles something of a Kiwi Naomi Osaka

Tennis NZ high performance director, Simon Rea, says Kiwi youngster Vivian Yang has the potential to have a bright future, comparing her to two time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, but that is someone that Yang says she is not ready to be compared to.

Rea says, “(Yang is) on the trajectory of previous successful top 100 female athletes. She also consistently displays a gritty perseverance which resembles something of a Kiwi Naomi Osaka. The signs are promising that Vivian has a bright future."

Matthew Alexander, Tennis NZ’s national development coach, says, "There is a big difference in her personality on the practice court and match court - which I like. We’re at the stage where we’re trying to find a good balance between using Vivian’s aggression and being consistent enough to go deep in tournaments. She’s a lot of fun too, though. She’s good at laughing at herself and not taking things too seriously, all the time."

15 year old Yang says her goal is to be ranked in the world's Top 100 juniors by the end of the year, with her current ranking being No. 353 in the world. “I feel like I’m not ready to be compared to her (Osaka)."

Yang recently served as a hitting partner for Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik at the ASB Classic. “She’s really solid and her style was bringing out a good game in me. The first year [at the ASB Classic] I was watching in the crowd; the second year I was in the lounge and this year I was good enough to be a hitting partner. So hopefully next year I will be playing qualifiers, if everything goes well. I got to play against professional players in a $15,000 women’s tournament in Hamilton last weekend which was pretty good - I made it to the quarterfinals in both the singles and doubles. I was a bit nervous at the start but when I got my first point, I started to relax. It’s different to playing juniors. I didn’t go to school for the first four weeks [of this year]. This is only my second day because I’ve been travelling to tournaments.  No pressure if you lose in the first round. Sometimes when I don’t play well, it's hard because I’m scared people are going to blame me. But win or lose, I’m always willing to work harder to be stronger in tournaments. She (sports psychologist) just listens to me rant about things that bother me - mainly things I feel like I can’t tell my coach. It’s not easy but I have the motivation to make it professionally, so that keeps me pumped."

Yang says her idol is German tennis star Alexander Zverev. “I was younger and I didn’t understand a lot about the game back then, but I remember seeing his passion and energy on court. Watching his movements and seeing his emotions made me feel comfortable."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2W63VjH