Tennis player Naomi Osaka has reached the third round of the US Open for the first time since 2021, the year she won her second title at Flushing Meadows.
Currently, Osaka is showing a good level of play, under the direction of her new coach. However, the player prefers not to speculate on her chances of going far in the tournament.
Honestly, I don’t really know. I don’t really care to know anymore. I just leave it up in the air. For me, I realize I’ve done all I can. I’ve trained really hard. I practiced really hard. If it happens, it happens.
Naomi Osaka
Osaka defeated Hailey Baptiste with a score of 6-3, 6-1 in the second round, in just 70 minutes.Osaka, a two-time US Open champion, has achieved all her Grand Slam titles on hard courts: two at the US Open and two at the Australian Open. After her victory in New York in 2020, her tournament participations ended in the third round (2021), the first round (2022), and the second round (2024).
The surface favors Osaka’s game, characterized by powerful serves and attacking tennis. This was evident in her match against Baptiste, although she also demonstrated versatility in terms of speed and effects.
Another highlight of Osaka’s game this week is her returns, which have put her opponents on the defensive, winning 11 of the 18 return games she has played so far.
Following her exit in the third round of Wimbledon last month, Osaka split with her coach Patrick Mouratoglou and began working with Tomasz Wiktorowski, who previously was part of Iga Swiatek’s team.
Osaka commented that Wiktorowski has encouraged her to focus more on the placement of her shots “and not necessarily look for winners most of the time”.
They seem to be progressing rapidly, and Osaka revealed that her impression of him changed rapidly.
Honestly, I didn’t know him, I thought he was very scary, because he is very tall and didn’t smile. Now that we are working together, I see that he smiles often. He has a very kind smile, and he is very nice. That’s my little fun fact about Tomasz.
