After suffering an early exit in Spain, Naomi Osaka has bounced back emphatically in France, where she reached the semifinals in Saint-Malo with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Elsa Jacquemot on Friday.
Last week, the former world No. 1 announced that she was taking a wild card into the WTA 125 event. The move was received as a sign of just how motivated the Japanese player, currently ranked No. 55, is to get back to her best tennis: It’s only the second time in Osaka’s career that she’s played at this level, which sits between tour level and the lower-level ITF circuit in prestige. Back then, in 2015, Osaka was 18 years old and ranked No. 203.
But as coach Patrick Mouratoglou told Tennis Channel 2’s Second Serve earlier this week, “the thing she needs the most” is to build up match fitness and regain momentum after seeing Osaka’s progress repeatedly halted due to injury.
Read More: After first-round Madrid loss, Naomi Osaka takes wild card to WTA 125 in France
“We decided to play a smaller tournament this week, we are in Saint-Malo in France,” Mouratoglou told hosts Tracy Austin, Sloane Stephens, Nick Monroe and Geoff Chizever.
“She really needs to play matches. For the last six to eight months she has been injured a lot, so unfortunately she hasn’t been able to play enough.
“We feel it’s the thing that she needs the most now. We had three weeks of intensive practice on clay, so she is ready to play.”
