Naomi Osaka: future multi GS winner

RF-18

RF-18

Talk Tennis Guru
Watching her against Halep. Only 18 years old, ranked 92 in the world and has a really big game. Great young player. I recommend you guys turning on eurosport, very exciting third set right now.

She made her first GS appearence in the main draw in AO this year where she made the 3rd round. Right now she is fighting for a spot in the 4th round of FO.
 
Levi_Ackerman

Levi_Ackerman

Legend
My, my, will knees ever stop jerking on TTW? Seriously, is there some kind of pathological illness out there that makes people leap to these kinds of conclusions? We've seen this kind of thing before, have we not? At this stage, in this day and age, it almost means nothing!
 
RF-18

RF-18

Talk Tennis Guru
tennisaddict said:
She is definitely a talent to look out for. She has great weapons. Even if she is not consistent, she is one that can cause some upsets at majors in the days to come.
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I think her game will fit well for Wimbledon. In her two first GS appearences she has med the 3rd round and even close of beating a top 10 player. I'm keeping an eye on here for wimby.
 
Felix le chat

Felix le chat

Rookie
She's ranked 92 but currently 48th in the Race....means she's having a great season so far.

I watched her vs Halep....she'll be top 20 within a year.

:D
 
RF-18

RF-18

Talk Tennis Guru
ACE of Hearts said:
I hope so. I like her game. She has shot making ability. Let's see if she wants it. There's been a lot of talented players that went on to have crappy careers.
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Yes. Must be careful with the hype. So many through the years wins something big but then just can't sustain it. I hope Osaka can do it, no doubt she has everything to be dominant.
 
BeatlesFan

BeatlesFan

Bionic Poster
I've seen Osaka interviewed three times and she sounds so humble, friendly, gentle and nice. I hope she has great success! I have hardly seen her play, but from what I've seen, she has a great presence on court, calm and collected.
 
M

merwy

G.O.A.T.
Mainad said:
Not sure what her relationship with her dad has been like but I guess she wanted to identify more with the Japanese side of her heritage?
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A good first step would be to learn the language then.

She seem like a nice girl with a good game, although it's a bit too much modern WTA-style ball bashing for my taste. Why she chose to play for Japan is a total mystery to me. I can't imagine that she feels Japanese, and I can't imagine that the average Japanese person considers her a countrywoman.
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
merwy said:
A good first step would be to learn the language then.
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She was born in Japan and I assumed she was raised there but it seems she's lived in the US since she was 3!

merwy said:
Why she chose to play for Japan is a total mystery.
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Reminds me a bit of Mary Pierce who was born in Canada to an American father and French mother and lived most of the early part of her life in the US and yet chose to play for France.
 
M

merwy

G.O.A.T.
Mainad said:
She was born in Japan and I assumed she was raised there but it seems she's lived in the US since she was 3!
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Yes I've heard about it but it seems contradictory if on the one hand she wants to identify with her Japanese heritage and on the other hand she doesn't want to make the effort to learn the language. Language is a big part of a country's culture, imo even more so with countries that have a completely different language system like Japan.

My mother is South Korean, and I'm a born Dutchman but I can still speak/understand/read Korean on a basic level. Would still never play for SK as I have never actually lived there.
 
Otacon

Otacon

Hall of Fame
Naomi Osaka started introducing herself, "Hi I'm Naomi, okay never mind" "I would like to thank Dasha for being super nice and a really cool person." " This is probably going to be the worst tennis speech of all time." :D
 
sportmac

sportmac

Hall of Fame
RF-18 said:
Watching her against Halep. Only 18 years old, ranked 92 in the world and has a really big game. Great young player. I recommend you guys turning on eurosport, very exciting third set right now.

She made her first GS appearence in the main draw in AO this year where she made the 3rd round. Right now she is fighting for a spot in the 4th round of FO.
Click to expand...
Good eye and that's from 2 years ago. Whether she reaches the slam heights remain to be seen but you saw the talent.

I called Ostapenko a little over a year before she showed up on anyone's radar. Little self stroking never hurt anyone! :D
 
I Am Finnish

I Am Finnish

Bionic Poster
merwy said:
Yes I've heard about it but it seems contradictory if on the one hand she wants to identify with her Japanese heritage and on the other hand she doesn't want to make the effort to learn the language. Language is a big part of a country's culture, imo even more so with countries that have a completely different language system like Japan.

My mother is South Korean, and I'm a born Dutchman but I can still speak/understand/read Korean on a basic level. Would still never play for SK as I have never actually lived there.
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Gave mix man:D
 
R

Rentaroo

New User
merwy said:
Yes I've heard about it but it seems contradictory if on the one hand she wants to identify with her Japanese heritage and on the other hand she doesn't want to make the effort to learn the language. Language is a big part of a country's culture, imo even more so with countries that have a completely different language system like Japan.

My mother is South Korean, and I'm a born Dutchman but I can still speak/understand/read Korean on a basic level. Would still never play for SK as I have never actually lived there.
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Naomi has put forth effort to learn Japanese for some time now. She has talked about studying Japanese in interviews with the Japanese media.

She occasionally posts her thoughts on Instagram or other social media in Japanese.
 
M

merwy

G.O.A.T.
Rentaroo said:
Naomi has put forth effort to learn Japanese for some time now. She has talked about studying Japanese in interviews with the Japanese media.

She occasionally posts her thoughts on Instagram or other social media in Japanese.
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Well that's good if she's learning. Only heard about her not speaking the language but didn't she was trying to learn it. Would've been easier if her mother taught it to her as a child though.
 
R

Rentaroo

New User
merwy said:
Well that's good if she's learning. Only heard about her not speaking the language but didn't she was trying to learn it. Would've been easier if her mother taught it to her as a child though.
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Yes, I agree if her mother began teaching her from a young age Japanese would have been easier to learn. I remember reading something about her studying Japanese when she was very young, but after she began focusing more heavily on tennis, she stopped working on learning Japanese as much.

It makes sense really, since she has lived in the U.S. for most of her life and her team / coaches all speak English.

Either way makes no difference to me, she is a nice kid and plays well. I hope she continues to play well in future tournaments :)
 
NaomiKonjuhPotapova

NaomiKonjuhPotapova

G.O.A.T.
My babe finally win something big!

Osaka-IW18-Trophy-a-J48TP.jpg
 
NaomiKonjuhPotapova

NaomiKonjuhPotapova

G.O.A.T.
merwy said:
Well that's good if she's learning. Only heard about her not speaking the language but didn't she was trying to learn it. Would've been easier if her mother taught it to her as a child though.
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She can't speak at all during her breakthrough at AO 2016 when she beat Svitol and said "English only" in her presscon. And later in that year at Japan Open she was interviewed in Japanese and able to reply a bit mixing it up with English.
 
NuBas

NuBas

Legend
She is drawing comparisons to SW but I think she is her own player, her footwork is as beautiful as Muguruza's and accuracy/change of direction is top notch. She is kinda like the Kei Nishikori of WTA except she won her M1000 already.
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
merwy said:
Well that's good if she's learning. Only heard about her not speaking the language but didn't she was trying to learn it. Would've been easier if her mother taught it to her as a child though.
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Yes, a bit odd her mum didn't bring her up to be bi-lingual. Would have been so much easier for her!
 
Nostradamus

Nostradamus

Bionic Poster
RF-18 said:
Watching her against Halep. Only 18 years old, ranked 92 in the world and has a really big game. Great young player. I recommend you guys turning on eurosport, very exciting third set right now.

She made her first GS appearence in the main draw in AO this year where she made the 3rd round. Right now she is fighting for a spot in the 4th round of FO.
Click to expand...
Can she win a Major this year ??? French open or US open ?? she makes too many mistakes for Wimbledon at the moment.
 
abmk

abmk

Bionic Poster
Jeez, what a run !!!
Beat Sharapova, Radwanska, Pliskova, Halep, Kasatkina in straight sets !!!!!!!!!!!

the only one to whom she lost a set (Sakkari - 5-7), she beat in the other 2 sets 6-1,6-1.
 
NaomiKonjuhPotapova

NaomiKonjuhPotapova

G.O.A.T.
NuBas said:
She is drawing comparisons to SW but I think she is her own player, her footwork is as beautiful as Muguruza's and accuracy/change of direction is top notch. She is kinda like the Kei Nishikori of WTA except she won her M1000 already.
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Mostly due to appearance and strokes. She used to mindless bashing, since 2018 somehow it changes. I'm so rooting for her to beat Serena so that she can face Svitolina again.
She was like "I'm changing my mind, I'm not up to this challenge" during on court coach with Shasha when she was losing to Svitolina. But confidence is a big game changer, let see how it changes Naomi.
 
NuBas

NuBas

Legend
NaomiKonjuhPotapova said:
Mostly due to appearance and strokes. She used to mindless bashing, since 2018 somehow it changes. I'm so rooting for her to beat Serena so that she can face Svitolina again.
She was like "I'm changing my mind, I'm not up to this challenge" during on court coach with Shasha when she was losing to Svitolina. But confidence is a big game changer, let see how it changes Naomi.
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Yeah, I don't closely follow WTA much to really make a comparison but maybe another one to throw in there is Madison Keys, I just don't like it when commentators immediately compare some player to SW just cause of their appearance. I'd like to see that too, too bad I think ESPN is not gonna stream the first week or so of Miami Open, not sure but hope they do. Tough first round for Osaka but I think she will win it since her form and confidence is hot right now, will prove she is no fluke.
 
S

Soianka

Hall of Fame
NuBas said:
Yeah, I don't closely follow WTA much to really make a comparison but maybe another one to throw in there is Madison Keys, I just don't like it when commentators immediately compare some player to SW just cause of their appearance. I'd like to see that too, too bad I think ESPN is not gonna stream the first week or so of Miami Open, not sure but hope they do. Tough first round for Osaka but I think she will win it since her form and confidence is hot right now, will prove she is no fluke.
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Madison plays more like a combination of Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport
 
PDJ

PDJ

G.O.A.T.
Mainad said:
She was born in Japan and I assumed she was raised there but it seems she's lived in the US since she was 3!



Reminds me a bit of Mary Pierce who was born in Canada to an American father and French mother and lived most of the early part of her life in the US and yet chose to play for France.
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With Pierce I think it was about lack of funding and fostering her talent. Although, her father's aggressive personality probably didn't help much!
 
PDJ

PDJ

G.O.A.T.
Just a thought: Has any one actually become "the next big thing" in the last ten years?
 
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