Naomi Osaka made a mention of Iga Swiatek after exiting Toronto in the second round as the Japanese revealed the French Open thriller versus the Pole “did wonders for my confidence” and since then she has been believing much more that she can improve as a player and also become a strong force outside hard courts.
Since Osaka has four Grand Slam titles on hard, there is no need to talk about how the hard surface suits her game. But when preparing for her post-pregnancy comeback, the 26-year-old made it clear that she wanted to expand her game and also learn how to play well on clay and grass.
And during this year’s clay season, Osaka came close to almost doing “the impossible” – and that’s beating Swiatek at the French Open. But in the end, Osaka fell just short despite having a 5-2 third-set lead and a match point as Swiatek went on to win their second-round match 7-6 (1) 1-6 7-5.
After that, Osaka made the ‘s-Hertogenbosch quarterfinal in what was her first grass tournament since 2019.
“You know, that Iga match did wonders for my confidence, I’m not going to lie. I’m optimistically looking forward to clay next year. Grass, I’m looking at it from a distance (laughing), but I’m willing to learn, I’m going to watch a lot of tapes of Serena. That’s kind of a…
