“I think, for me, I want to win. I want to win tournaments I’ve never won before,” Osaka said. “I want to do well on clay. I want to set myself up for a really good end of the year, which is my favorite part of the year. So, I’d love to be seeded by then. I think, for me, I really like Rome, so I want to try and be here as long as possible.”
Another source of inspiration comes from being part of a successful generation of players born in 1997, a cohort that includes 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko, Belinda Bencic, and Daria Kasatkina.
“I probably keep an eye on them more than any other players,” said Osaka. “I think that’s just because I like them a lot. People know I say Ostapenko is probably my favorite player. I really love her a lot. I think she’s the exact polar opposite of me. She’s just fun to me. Bencic, I really respect her a lot and also think she’s a polar opposite of me in terms of, you can count on her to win the matches she’s supposed to. Me, I’m a little bit more of a wild card. I just really like both of them. Obviously, Bencic came back and she’s killing it and that inspires me to do better. Ostapenko, she just won Stuttgart. They definitely push me a lot.”
Osaka will next face either No. 16 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia or Marie Bouzkova.
