The American legend was also impressed by the Japanese’s improvements on clay and grass-courts
True glimpses of Naomi Osaka. The Japanese is returning to the player we remembered, with aggressive, tenacious tennis. The WTA Tour is thus (finally) finding one of its great superstars again. The world number 8 Qinwen Zheng, with the WTA seasonal record of 23 aces, eliminated the Japanese in three sets in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament in Berlin, with the final score of 6-4 3-6 6-3 (The Zheng’s performance surpasses Karolina Pliskova’s record of 19 aces against Anna Kalinskaya in Doha – ed.).
This is Zheng’s second victory of the season against Osaka, after her success in Rome, but Naomi’s performance still remains very solid. Not only; considering the epic match played by the Japanese in Paris against Iga Swiatek, we can see how the former WTA No.1 is gradually returning to her level. A warning for the opponents, who, starting from the hard-court season in North America, will have an additional great opponent to compete with.
In an interview with Tennis Channel, the American legend Andy Roddick was impressed by Osaka’s improvements, even on playing surfaces that were not at all congenial to her.
“I think Naomi is making this progress on surfaces that she doesn’t really like, that aren’t natural for her. On clay, we saw her give hell to Iga Swiatek at the French Open. She was the only one who is been in the same stratosphere as Swiatek for two hours of that tournament and then I like what he’s doing on the grass. My favorite thing is that he’s planning aggressively played last week, he played this week. has ever done in her entire career or even when she was at her peak. And I think we’re starting to see those high-level moments from Naomi. Obviously, the mistakes come a little more often than when she was in her prime.” explained Roddick.
Emma Raducanu has been awarded a Wimbledon main draw wild card along with Naomi Osaka and Caroline Wozniacki 🎾🆕 pic.twitter.com/EhSoKzCkD3
— Sky Sports Tennis (@SkySportsTennis) June 19, 2024
Qinwen Zheng had kind words for Naomi Osaka after beating her in Berlin:
Qinwen: “Naomi Osaka is always one of the greatest players, she has a strong serve, she hits hard. It’s never easy to play against her.” ❤️
“When you figured out you were playing Naomi in the first round,… pic.twitter.com/a9CgwA8Rgg
After not winning a match on grass last year, she’s off to an impressive start.
She’s already done incredible things this year, but it feels like she has more big things coming.