Osaka and his ‘attack’ on the ground: "I stole one of Nadal’s secrets"

Approaches Roland Garros and tennis players are finishing their set-up in various preparatory clay court tournaments. This is the case of Mutua Madrid Open, where the best players in the world find their best versionalthough some of them were choked with clay.

This is the case of Naomi Osaka. The former world number 1 does not have any title on clay, and has yet to make it through the third round of the Parisian Grand Slam. This year It was suggested to take a step forward to compete hand in hand with the top favorites for the title.

And there is no better way than to learn from the king of the land. So are the Japanese He trained for five days on the slopes of the Mallorca Country Club, where he was named an honorary member.a difference he will share with Prince Albert of Monaco, Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem, and Carlos Moyá.

“I want to see great clay court players practice because I feel like I’m the kind of person who learns quickly when I see it up close,” he told Mutua Madrid Open Media Day.

And Rafa Nadal seems to be his great inspiration. “I think I stole one of the things he did and I’ve been practicing it recently. It will be very good or very bad. There is no middle ground. But I think the way I did it, it turned out well for me. “

“I think you’ll see it when I play. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I will say I changed a few things to better fit the clay“he added a moment before joking if he was about to start picking up the racket with his left hand.

“You thought? In fact, I’m already warming up with my left hand, but I don’t think it’s a skill that will come out anytime soon. This is only for technical reasons. “

This Friday we will be able to watch Naomi Osaka in action in Madrid. Debut against Russia’s Potapovaand in the second round they will see themselves against the winner in the duel between two tough nuts to crack like Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Sara Sorribes.