AFTER years of having a rather a strained relationship with Wimbledon thanks to being “paralysed by fear” at the thought of playing on tennis’s fastest surface, Naomi Osaka feels she has finally found her grasscourt wings.
The Japanese player, who has won all four of her Grand Slam titles on the hardcourts of Melbourne Park and Flushing Meadows, has never found her comfort zone on the green, green grass of Wimbledon, making only four previous appearances during her 10-year professional career.
During those four visits to the All England Club, she won a total of just five matches, with third-round showings in 2017 and 2018 her standout performances -- hardly anything to shout about for a woman who has been ranked on top of the world.
But after matching her best ever Wimbledon showing on Wednesday with an impressive 6-3 6-2 win over Czech Katerina Siniakova, who has won the Wimbledon women's doubles title three times, Osaka feels she has finally overcome the fear factor on grass.
“When I was younger, I had no fear. I think when you are young, you fear nothing, and that’s one of the really cool things about it,“ explained Osaka, now ranked 53 as she continues to try to recapture her best form after taking a maternity break in 2023.
“But with age fear kind of crept along and, I guess, paralysed me in a way. Now I’m kind of just getting over that and trying to spread my wings on grass.
“I think it is working, and I think I am moving pretty well. Yeah, I just hope that in years to come and hopefully this year I can do a lot better in this tournament.”
Osaka could not have picked a better year to enjoy a deep run at the tournament.
Following the carnage of seeds over the first three days, the highest seeds she could meet before a potential semi-final against either world number one Aryna Sabalenka or Australian Open champion Madison Keys are number 13 Amanda Anisimova or number 30 Linda Noskova -- neither of whom are known for their grasscourt pedigree.
After two straight-set victories, she will certainly fancy her chances of defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach the last 16 here for the first time, considering the Russian has not beaten her since 2017.
“Definitely this year I feel a lot more comfortable moving on grass,“ said Osaka after improving her Wimbledon win-loss record to 7-4 on the day her daughter Shai was celebrating her second birthday.
“I know the last couple of years I was really scared to move because when I was younger, I strained my knee or whatever. It took a couple of years to get over that but I definitely feel a lot more comfortable.”
