"I'm going to take it seriously" - Osaka on upcoming clay season

Former world No.1 Naomi Osaka has vowed to approach the upcoming clay swing ‘really seriously’ in hope that she can continue her momentum from the Miami Open.

Former world No.1 Naomi Osaka has vowed to approach the upcoming clay swing ‘really seriously’ in hope that she can continue her momentum from the Miami Open. Osaka, who has fallen to 77th in the rankings, produced one of her best runs in recent time at the American WTA 1000 event with wins over Angelique Kerber, Danielle Collins and Belinda Bencic. She did lose to Swiatek in the final and on that she said:

“Iga was quite different from all the players that I’ve played previously, so it was a bit hard to adjust to what she was doing. I’m not as disappointed as I normally would be, like I think normally I would be crying in the locker room or something, but now I’m kind of like chilled. I feel like I know what I want to do better, and I just want to go back and start training again to like hopefully win a tournament next time.”

Next up for Osaka is the clay season where she traditionally does not play her best. Asked about it she said she would take it seriously:

“I’m gonna try to take this clay court season really seriously, so I’m actually going to go to Europe a week before to train on the red clay. I'm clearly not a clay expert but I feel like if I get my movement together, I should be pretty good. I grew up on green clay so it shouldn’t be that foreign to me."