Former World No.1 Osaka, playing her first match since her run to the Miami Open final last month, dismissed qualifier Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-1 in a hair over an hour.
Osaka looked in fine form not panicking after dropping her serve early in the match to come back and storm past a player that won a trophy on this very surface last week. She said:
"I'm honestly trying to be more positive with myself. This year I came a week early to train on red clay, so just trying to give myself more chances to do better. ... To be able to do it in two sets, for me, it's a really good starting block. I think today for me it was really fun, just being able to be back on the clay and kind of not taking those moments for granted."
Osaka did something unusual for her on match point and asked about she said:
"You know what I did at the match point? I believe watching Nadal, Iga does it too, just knowing when to hit a FH instead of a BH and knowing when to run around. I think a lot of really good clay court players do that, so I'm trying to learn how to do that, as well. I know every kid growing up playing tennis in the world has pretended to be Nadal at least once."