(Madrid) Japanese Naomi Osaka, who won her seven titles, including four Grand Slams, on hard courts, said she was inspired by certain methods of Rafael Nadal to finally succeed on clay, Wednesday in front of the press at the day before the start of the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid on this surface.
Posted at 10:25 a.m.
“I think I stole one of the methods he uses from him and applied it to training recently,” said the ex-N. 1 in the world, who prepared for clay by going to train for several days in Mallorca, on the land of “Rafa”.
“It’s as if I had one more string to my bow […] Either it will work really well or really badly, there is no in-between. But I think the way I did it went pretty well,” added Osaka, keeping the borrowing a mystery.
“I wanted to watch the really good clay court players in training, because I think I’m the kind of person who learns really fast if I watch closely,” she added.
After a psychologically difficult 2021, Osaka, now 36and world at 24, made her return to the fore by reaching the final of the WTA 1000 in Miami at the beginning of April where she gave in to the world No.1, Iga Swiatek.
But she never got past 3and tour at Roland-Garros, in five participations, and has still not won a title on clay.