Naomi Osaka’s comeback will hit one other gear this week in Australia, with the stress and expectations of the season’s first Slams upon her as all eyes search to get a real glimpse of what sort of kind the four-time Grand Slam champion can summon after greater than a 12 months away from the sport.
In the event you occur to overlook Osaka this week, don’t fear, the 26-year-old mom of 1 says she is planning to play a heavy schedule in 2024.
“I am undoubtedly pondering this 12 months that I wish to play lots of tournaments,” she instructed reporters atm media day on the Australian Open. “I would return to the schedule I had once I was, like, 18 or one thing. I feel proper now I really want to play lots of matches and it’ll in all probability situation me to a minimum of have a very good finish of the 12 months.
“For me proper now, my schedule’s sort of full of the tournaments that I wish to play.”
Osaka, who went 1-1 at Brisbane in her first occasion of the 12 months, is slated to face France’s Caroline Garcia, the No.16 seed, in spherical one.
She is aware of she’ll have her palms full with the previous World No.3.
“I feel it is undoubtedly powerful, after all,” Osaka, who defeated Garcia of their solely earlier assembly on the Australian Open, 6-2, 6-3, in 2021, mentioned. “She’s seeded. Each time I play her, I all the time assume she’s an unimaginable participant. She has each shot {that a} top-five participant wants.
“My quick thought was, ‘Okay, that is powerful,’ however I undoubtedly assume I can obtain what I wish to obtain. Hopefully throughout the match I will, I suppose, have issues go my means. In a bizarre means I am glad I am enjoying a seed in order that hopefully, if I get by way of that, the following match will not be as troublesome.”
Engaged on the Return and the Backhand
Osaka talked concerning the progress she is at present making, and the way she desires to proceed enhancing two keys to her recreation: the return and the backhand.
“I feel my match in opposition to Pliskova (a loss in Brisbane) sort of confirmed me that I’ve a very good serve, but when my return can simply be, like, 10 p.c higher [it would help me],” she mentioned. “I feel I had lots of break factors. Simply to transform, like, three of them would have made the match a complete lot totally different.
“I actually tried to give attention to my return. I attempted to give attention to my backhand quite a bit now, hitting with [Amanda] Anisimova [in a practice session] and buying and selling backhands was actually enjoyable. Yeah, truthfully I can go on and on about stuff that I wish to, I suppose, good. I can virtually say prefer it’s every little thing. However these are in all probability the 2 issues proper now.”
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