Osaka heads into Madrid Open with a more positive mindset

Madrid — Naomi Osaka said she is filtering out any negativity in her preparation for the clay-court season as she continues to heal from being heckled in a second-round loss at Indian Wells in March.           

The four-times Grand Slam champion was broken in the first game at the tournament in California when a fan shouted “Naomi, you suck” and Osaka could later be seen wiping away tears. However, the Japanese said her focus is on the positive ahead of the Madrid Open beginning this week.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s not like every day is being perfect,” Osaka told reporters when speaking about her struggles with mental health.

“I talk to my therapist at least once a week and I just try to be more open to things. Say something happens that kind of throws me off my groove, I try to see it from a different perspective. I was talking to my therapist about that, being more open to all the possibilities.

“I would say that filtering the negativity from a minority is something that I’m getting better doing. I’m doing mental exercises to focus on the positive,” Osaka added, explaining that she is staying away from Twitter because “it is way more negative than Instagram”.

She also said that the Indian Wells experience allowed her another opportunity to grow as she looks to recover her world No 1 ranking, having slipped to 36 since taking a break from tennis following her upset loss at last year’s US Open.

“There are a lot of moments in my career that are extremely sad for me at that time but I can later come back, look at it and think that I really grew as a person after that,” Osaka said.

“Even though I really hated the experience, I’m glad it happened to me. Indian Wells was one of those moments. I wish it didn’t happen but I’m glad it did.”

After losing in straight sets to current world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the Miami Open final earlier this month, Osaka went to Rafa Nadal’s home in Mallorca to prepare for the clay-court season and made a few tweaks to her game inspired by the 21-times Grand Slam winner.

“I stole one of the things that he does and I’ve been practising it recently so it will either go really good or really bad. There is no in-between,” Osaka joked.

Clay is not Osaka’s strongest surface and she has never gone beyond the third round at the French Open. However, she said she is not setting any targets ahead of the Grand Slam at Roland Garros in May.

“I’m taking one tournament at a time,” Osaka said. “Of course, I want to win matches and reach the semis either here in Madrid or in Rome [Italian Open], hopefully win, but I’ll set little goals first.”

Reuters