‘Really Not the Best Place…’- Naomi Osaka Reveals Huge Change in Attitude Ahead of the US Open Swing

Naomi Osaka is one of those few players who has achieved tremendous success at a very early stage in her career. She is just 24 years old and has four Grand Slams and a career high ranking of world no.1 under her name. However, in contrast to her constant growth on the tour, her mental health has seen many ups and downs.

Osaka has been through a lot of situations that have caused significant emotional damage. The most recent one is the heckling incident at the 2022 Indian Wells. Even so, she seems to grow stronger and her opinion about the world keeps getting more optimistic with time.

Naomi Osaka about her mental wellbeing

Osaka recently enrolled for the Silicon Valley Classic and, while addressing the media at the pre-tournament press conference, she spoke about her mental health. The Japanese explained what she noticed while scrolling through her tweets in chronological order, from oldest to newest. She said,“It started out basically kind of sad and negative, to slowly becoming more light and positive.” 

Thereafter she added, “I was like, wow, that was really not the best place I was in last year.” Further Osaka a few days back tweeted. “Just went through some old notes from last year. Wow, I am basically a whole different person. “

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Speaking of her tennis, the two time US Open champion hasn’t had a great year. After securing the spot of runner-up at the Miami Open, her game went downhill. She failed to book herself a round of 16 appearance at Madrid and fell prey to an injury just before the Italian Open. Then she left the Grand Slam of clay with a straight sets defeat in the opening round.

Osaka’s first opponent

Naomi Osaka will lock horns with the 19-year-old Chinese tennis ace Qinwen Zheng in the first round of Silicon Valley Classic. She will return to the tour with this tournament after having to skip the Grand Slam of grass because of a foot injury. Hence, she will eye the title that the WTA 500 tournament has to offer in order to prepare for the US Open swing.

Meanwhile, the former world no.46 will look forward to secure her second trophy of the season after her triumph at the WTA Challenger event, the BBVA Open Internacional de Valencia in June. Further, Zheng will not be an easy rival for Osaka as she was the only person who forced the world no.1 Iga Swiatek into a third set in the French Open.

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If the former world no.1 manages to get past Zheng, she will most probably meet the 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff in the second round.