Osaka hopes to improve clay-court game by learning from Rafael Nadal

Former World No.1 Naomi Osaka will make her clay-court debut this season at the Madrid Open, and the Japanese superstar shared that she has been incorporating some some tricks from Rafael Nadal to improve her game on the red surface.

Osaka finished runner-up at the Miami Open last month, before taking some time off and then heading to Europe to begin her clay preparations. The four-time Grand Slam champion has been training in Mallorca, and hinted that she has added a few tweaks to to her game.

"Actually yes, I changed a couple of things," Osaka told reporters at Media Day in Madrid. "I think you guys will be able to tell when I play. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I would say I did change a couple of things to suit myself more for clay."

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Furthermore, the 24-year old revealed she might even try to incorporate some things she's learned from watching Rafael Nadal over the years on clay.

"I think I stole one of the things that he did and I’ve been practicing it recently," Osaka said. "It’ll either go really good or really bad. There’s like no in between. But I think as I’ve been doing it, it’s been going pretty well.

"Honestly I’ve been wanting to watch the really good clay-court players practice because I feel like I’m the type of person that learns really fast if I see it up close, and honestly it’s a bit of a waste to have all these really good professional tennis players and not watch them. I’ve kind of wanted to see [Carlos] Alcaraz, so it’d be cool to watch everyone practice."