Naomi Osaka’s frustration was not hidden after a first round defeat to Paula Badosa at the French Open last month.
She won her first set with a thrilling tiebreaker and fought for 2 hours and 21 minutes in front of a seductive crowd at Court Philippe Chatelier. But in the end she couldn’t close the match.
The 27-year-old had a hard time talking at her press conference soon.
“I think I should do better,” she said with emotion in her voice. “I hate disappointing people. So even (Coach) Patrick (Mouratoglou) had been thinking about this now, and he was working with the best player of all time (Serena Williams) and said, “What is this?
She sat back in her chair and then quickly apologised for the curse, looking at the edge of tears. The moderator asked if he needed time to regain his composure. She agreed and left the room.
If she didn’t come back, that would be understandable, perhaps expected early in her career, but Osaka returned soon. When asked how the match would make her stronger, she wasn’t sure, but she found a silver lining when she spoke.
“I feel like I’m learning little things from each game,” Osaka said. “I think I lost a tiebreaker in Rome and I didn’t lose a tiebreaker here. So I’m conscious of things when I’m playing, so I might learn little things from today in the next match.”
According to Mouratoglow, who has been working with Osaka since September, she is doing just that, and is more encouraged than ever by seeing Wimbledon on the way. Osaka is fully progressing from what happened in Paris. And despite having never made any progress past the third round at the All-England club, Mouratoglow said Osaka is optimistic and is preparing for the first round match against qualifying Talia Gibson on Monday.
As a former world No. 1 and four-time major champion, external expectations and attention remain high. Territories are attached. But Osaka, Mouratoggle and other teams are not thinking about winning the title, but they believe they will come again.
“In the last two years she hasn’t won as much as she’s had in the past, but it can be difficult to deal with,” Mouratoglou told ESPN on Thursday. “So at this point, I think it would be much better to refocus on what she has control over and what she wants to achieve in addition to her achievements… I’m not focusing much on the results, but more on what it generates from a game and the game’s perspective, and that’s important.
After the match with 10th seed Badosa, Mouratoglou sat down and said he discussed what happened, what went wrong, why her level was soaked in the second set, and why she made a decision in the court she made. He believed that the more they understood about the loss, the longer they could benefit her.
He also understood that she was desperately needed a few days away from tennis. It was a long clay court season, during which she played four tournaments and won her first title (125K Saint-Malo event) since returning from maternity leave at the start of the 2024 season. Osaka returned to Los Angeles and spent time with her almost two-year-old daughter, Shy.
18-time major champion and ESPN analyst Chris Ebert said last week, “Maybe having (her daughter) will help her overcome her loss.” “I think it’s great to have that in her life. I think it gives (her) a perspective.”
That perspective is what Osaka has spoken openly since returning to the tour. She struggled with mental health before pregnancy and previously took multiple breaks from the competition, but Shy provided something else to focus her energy, no matter how she played on the tennis court.
“Birthing a daughter has changed my way of thinking,” Osaka told ESPN before her comeback. “And it also made me realize that my world doesn’t have to unfold around me. This could also be a bit selfish. I think it’s just finding outer happiness and inner peace.”
According to Mouratoglou, the attitude was fully on display when Osaka, a refreshingly recreated version, returned to Europe and returned to Europe for the shortest herbivore season than ever before.
“This part of the season is very important and you really have to focus completely,” Mouratoglou is also the author of “Champion Mindset” and also states a book on self-help. “If you’ve been thinking about tournaments before, you’re not really there. But I think she’s really moving forward. She’s not thinking about Roland Garros at all.”
Three weeks after his disappointment in Paris, Osaka returned to the court and played at the Berlin Open. She lost to final semi-finalist Ludmira Samsonova in another three sets of thrillers, but the team was encouraged by what they saw. Wanting to get more match experiences on the surface before heading to London, Osaka accepted the bad Homburg Open wildcard. In a fiercely contested battle where both players were expected to serve strong, Osaka defeated Olga Danilovich 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) in the first grass court victory of the season.
“I hope so,” Osaka said after the game when asked if she was a good grass court player. “I mean, I think there’s a possibility for me, but I don’t know. Everyone is really good, so I can’t take it for granted.
Mouratoglou was impressed with her ability to level up, hold her serve and handle breakpoints. She lost 6-4, 6-4 in a match against fifth seeded Emma Navarro the following day, but the team still managed to achieve success that week.
And most importantly, Osaka was the same.
“She was very positive,” Mouratoglow said. “And because she’s not. When she doesn’t feel it, she won’t say it or if she feels negative, she’ll say it negative. So she’s not the one who fakes it.
Mouratoglou admitted that it’s sometimes difficult for Osaka. She was at the peak of tennis early in her career, and has struggled with her results for many years and knows the expectations others have put on her. She hasn’t made it past the third round in the majors since winning the Australian Open in 2021. They also did not win tour-level titles during that period. She is currently ranked 53rd in the world.
However, there was a bright spot – she reached her first WTA Final in almost three years at Auckland this season and had to retire due to injuries. And Mouratoglow believes that Osaka has begun to appreciate her travels and her own efforts.
“She was number one in the world, so she was 50th and she had to hold back on getting everything right, so that’s what she finds difficult,” Mouratoglow said. “But being on the top of the game is very difficult, so this is (new) difficult that she needs to accept, but I feel she’s doing that, and she’s sure about it now.”
Others noticed her efforts and saw her previous flash of glow. After the match in Paris, Badosa praised Osaka’s level, saying, “Now she’ll be the place she wants to be.”
While Ebert believes she has remained one of the best ball strikers on the tour and praised her hard work and fitness, she thinks that what Osaka needs most to return to its former glory is simply confidence.
“I think it’s the best. And I’ve seen her play in so many games that are very close. She’s not winning those games. I think what she lost a little during the break is belief, belief in big points, belief in big 5-All games,” Ebert said. “These shots, those golden shots, she was filming when she was getting slams for a few years, but it’s gone. She can get it back. She needs to win a bit more matches.
Mouratoglou disagrees. He sees how good and consistent Osaka actually makes. And their priorities are to get what he appears to translate into matches at practice courts every day. He believes they are close.
Osaka has acquired a tough first-round opponent in some of her recent slam appearances due to her lack of seedling, but she has a relatively favorable match against 21-year-old Gibson, who plays in her first major main draw outside her home country. If Osaka wins Monday, she will likely play No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen, the singles Olympic gold medalist in the second round. Zheng has won two of the previous three meetings, and although both victories have come since Osaka’s return, Grass is also Zheng’s weakest surface. The winner of their match does not need to face another player seeded in the top 20 until the quarter-finals.
With four career shows, Osaka reached two in 32 rounds (2017 and 2018). Last year, she first played in her first tournament in five years and reached the second round. But before the draw’s announcement, former World No. 1 and 2003 US Open Champion Andy Roddick said “There’s no reason why she can’t play well in Grass,” and said she was optimistic about her chances at the tennis channel location.
People around Osaka believe this too. Though they don’t mind the deniers about her game on the surface. In fact, they believe that low expectations of participating in the tournament and her under-radar status will only benefit her.
And so perhaps Wimbledon is unlikely to hear it – in reality, it may be the perfect place for everything to finally reunite for Osaka.
“We know she has less pressure to do well on the grass,” Mouratoglow said. “It’s an opportunity to go there and play with less pressure and show again what she can and what she actually does. We use it as a motivation to get closer to (her first match) so she can feel lighter and focus on her game.
