With the Wimbledon Championships around the corner, one of the players who will be looking for redemption is Naomi Osaka. The Japanese tennis star hasn’t had the best of times on the court ever since her comeback earlier this year. This has seriously affected her WTA ranking, dropping out of the top 100. This is an unideal situation for a player with 4 Grand Slam titles and Osaka will be looking to make it big in the upcoming major event. She even has the backing of Andy Roddick, who remained optimistic about the Japanese star.

Roddick has followed Osaka’s recent performances closely and found a spark in it. On the recent episode of his Served with Andy Roddick podcast, the American legend reasoned out why he felt Osaka could dig deep at Wimbledon. He said, “Well, listen, she’s she’s coming back from but my favorite thing is that she’s scheduling aggressively. She played last week she played this week, she’s never done that in her entire career, even when she was she was peak Osaka.”

Interestingly, Osaka’s best performance at Wimbledon has only been a third-round appearance. Despite this, Roddick was impressed with Osaka’s showing against Iga Swiatek at the French Open. Although she lost that match, Osaka stretched Swiatek right till the end and Roddick is hoping that it could be a spark for Osaka’s Wimbledon chances, despite bowing out in the opening round in Berlin.

Further, Roddick added, “But also I think she’s making this progress on surfaces that she doesn’t really like that aren’t natural to her the clay we saw her give Swiatek hell in the French Open only one in that kind of same stratosphere as her for for two hours of that tournament. And then I like what she’s doing on the grass. I think either one of these players, it wouldn’t shock me to see them on the business end of Wimbledon, they both have that type of weaponry.” 

Meanwhile, Roddick’s prediction about Osaka has been given a further boost. Recently, the wildcards for the tournament were released and Osaka was one of the names which made it to that list.

Naomi Osaka granted a wildcard entry into the Wimbledon Championships

The Japanese star is ranked 113th in the world, making her ineligible to qualify directly into the main draw of the Wimbledon Championships. However, she has received a major boost to her chances as the tournament has granted her a wildcard entry into the main draw. Thus, Osaka won’t have to play in the qualifying rounds and can focus on her preparations for the main draw.

Additionally, stars like Emma Raducanu and Angelique Kerber were also granted wildcards. All the three are Grand Slam winners but down in the rankings chart. Thus, the wildcard has acted as a boon to them on the sport’s biggest stage.

On the other hand, Simona Halep, whose doping ban was recently lifted, failed to get a wildcard and fans weren’t happy with this decision. Even the American tennis legend, Venus Williams, wasn’t awarded a wildcard. Do you agree with the Wimbledon Championships’ decision to exclude players like Simona Halep and Venus Williams in the wildcard’s list? Let us know your views in the comments below.