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Naomi Osaka smiles again

Laura Martha

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She still needs certain tools to face the test of the press: cap to hide her eyes, huge silver headphones to feel safe, hands in her jacket pockets. But Naomi Osaka, 24 years old, smiles again, in his own way, shyly, almost apologizing for letting out a small laugh in the middle of the conversation. Physically stronger than ever, she shows that she has also learned to manage the panic that can be caused by anyone facing twenty recorders recording every detail of her words and gestures.

Champion of four Grand Slams (Australian Open 2019 and 2021, US Open 2018 and 2020), in 2018 she won the first, but she could hardly celebrate it because the stands booed her victory after her rival, Serena Williams, had a mishap with the chair umpire who overshadowed everything else.

Last year she was the protagonist, unintentionally, of a advocacy for mental health care, fined and fired from Roland Garros for refusing to attend the press because of the anxiety it caused her. Prints on her head. “I’m not going to lie, not every day everything is already perfect. I do exercises to focus on the positive and I’m getting better at filtering out negative comments, trying not to let them affect me as much. I talk to my therapist at least once a week and try to be more open to things. If something happens that throws me off my groove, I try to look at it from a different perspective.”

Just a few days ago, a spectator shouted “Naomi, you suck” at her in the middle of the game, and it dislocated the player until she was shaking. «It was a very unpleasant moment, but, although I did not like that experience at all, I am glad that it happened to me. I wish it hadn’t happened, of course, but there have been moments in my career that were very sad for me, but now I can look at them and think that I grew as a person. Indian Wells was one of those times. Maybe on any other occasion it wouldn’t have affected me, but here it did. But I try to remain me, think about why do i let it get to me and learn».

He has even stopped punishing himself so much if something doesn’t work on the track. Proof of this is his return to clay, a surface that is not comfortable for him, which he has not stepped on since he left in Paris last year, on which he has never had a great result -fourth at the Mutua Madrid Open in 2019, third round at Roland Garros as the best data-, but that he wanted to try again, to prove himself, with an invitation to the tournament that opens today against the Russian Anastasiya Potapova. “I am trying to accept my failures compared to how I behaved in previous years. I try not to be so hard on myself. If I make a mistake or I don’t move fast enough to the ball, because on the ground you have to move faster, I don’t go crazy like I used to. I’m still a student on clay and I want to keep learning.”

Learn from Nadal and Alcaraz

If you want to learn to play on clay, nothing better than looking at the best. And if you talk about clay, nobody better than Rafael Nadal. «I have been watching his videos and I was training for a few days in Mallorca. I wanted to see them train because I am a fast learner. I stole a few details from what he does and I’ve been practicing them recently, so it will either go very well or it will go very badly. There is no middle ground. I’ve changed some things, and you’ll see, I don’t want to spoil the surprise », he joked, eyes hidden under her cap.

She not only looks at what Nadal does, whom she praises and agrees that it is normal for “all children to want to be like him”, but she is also hooked on Alcarazmania. She has been attentive to all his games and praises what he has awakened on the circuit. «She has created a great expectation, she has made people really interested in tennis, and something like this has not been seen for a long time. Many times you don’t even think about his age, he forgets me. Although it is still impressive when you remember it. I look at his style of play, which is genuine, and it’s been a steady growth since he beat Stefanos Tsitsipas at the US Open last year.”

Aware that he has a long way to go to master it, the goals are more short-term than long-term. «Of course I want to win matches on clay and reach the semi-finals here in Madrid or Rome, even win, hopefully. But I have small goals beforehand: go tournament by tournament.

On the last question, another small victory over shyness. Which cartoon character do you identify with? She thinks about it, raises her head and confesses: “Snorlax, from Pokémon, a big bear that loves to sleep,” she smiles, only half, looking down at the table, cap covering her nerves. But she smiles.

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