NEW YORK (AP) — Naomi Osaka is at the US Open to compete for the first time in two years, and she said Saturday that returning to the venue where she won two of her four Grand Slam titles is giving her a boost – but not because she is focused on her past successes there.
NO, Osaka explainsRather, she is interested in looking even further back, to the time when she was a child in New York and came as a fan to watch “all the famous players you can imagine,” such as Rafael Nadal, Serena and Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova.
“I think it helps me to come to this special tournament. But when I come here, I don’t really think about the two tournaments I won,” said the 26-year-old Osakawho was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father; the family moved to New York when she was three. “I just think about how I felt as a kid because I grew up here and have such vivid memories of watching my favorite players. It’s more of a childhood nostalgia that I really enjoy.”
She won the US Open 2018 and 2020the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021 and was previously number 1. But after a combination of time out – first for Mental health breaksthen because she gave birth to a child – and had mediocre results this season – she is 18-15 in 2024 – Osaka is currently 85. She will face number 10 Elena Ostapenkothe 2017 French Open winner, on Tuesday in Flushing Meadows.
During the US Open last year, Osaka visited, watched tennis and competed with Michael Phelps discussing mental health.
After being eliminated from the Cincinnati Open qualifying round on hard court this month, Osaka posted on social media about how she is dealing with the losses and not fully understanding why she isn’t playing like she used to.
“My biggest problem right now is not the losses, but the fact that I don’t feel like myself. It’s a weird feeling to miss balls that I shouldn’t miss and to hit balls that are softer than before. I try to tell myself, ‘It’s OK, you’re doing great, just get through it and keep going.’ Mentally, though, it’s really exhausting.” She wrote“Inside I hear myself screaming: ‘What… is happening here?!?!'”
She added: “The only feeling I can compare to now is after giving birth” and “I don’t understand why everything has to feel almost like new again.”
One problem has been that she has had difficulty changing surfaces recently, from the red clay at the French Open to the grass at Wimbledon, back to the clay at the Paris Olympics and now to the hard court.
Another reason was a lack of self-confidence, partly due to early exits: in the second round of the French Open against eventual champion Iga Swiatek, although she was only one point away from victory; in the second round of Wimbledon against Emma Navarro; in the first round of the Summer Games against three-time major winner Angelique Kerber.
“I feel like I’ve had really tough matches all year and that’s affected my confidence a little bit,” Osaka said. “I wouldn’t say I’ve played bad tennis. I would just say I’ve played against really good players.”
The insightful posts she occasionally publishes on social media help to clarify one’s thoughts.
“It’s like speaking your words into the universe and then letting them go,” Osaka said. “After you see it, you’re basically free of the thoughts that confuse you.”
Now, she said on Saturday, she feels “much better” and is training “at a really high level.”
“I hope,” Osaka said, “that I can also play games at a really high level.”
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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
