Inspired by Agassi, Naomi Osaka brings Challenger success to Rome
ROME -- Last week, Naomi Osaka did something she hadn't done for 10 years. She dropped down to a WTA 125 tournament -- the level just beneath the main tour -- in Saint-Malo, France. And it paid off. Osaka came away with the L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo trophy, the first clay-court title of her career at any level.
It's continuing to pay off at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, where Osaka opened her account with a 6-2, 6-3 win over wild card Sara Errani. She struck 40 winners in total, frequently finding breathtaking angles with her backhand, to overcome the clay-court wiles of the 38-year-old Italian. That's a six-match winning streak now, on a surface Osaka has long regarded with suspicion. She will next face No. 9 seed Paula Badosa.
Rome: Draws | Scores | Order of play | Tournament info
For players who’ve reached the highest level of the sport, the idea of competing at a lower tier can be a complicated one — so much so that it became the central theme of Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 film "Challengers." Can a star player still feel they're too good for a relatively lowly event, even when their ranking is no longer in the Top 30? Does it bring unnecessary added pressure when casual fans expect you to cruise to the title?
"I didn't really have too much of an ego playing that tournament," Osaka told the press with a smile after defeating Errani. She was still conscious of the chatter around her last-minute decision, though.
"Obviously I would have been really disappointed to lose in the first round," she said. "I guess I would think that people would say that if I didn't win the trophy. ... There's a lot of situations that could have occurred. For me, I just wanted to focus on the tennis. I wanted to rack up experience on clay.
"I've always told people that I'm OK, like, playing on Court 16 if I have to anyways. The reason I came back wasn't to play on center courts all the time, it's because I really enjoy the game."
WTA 125 fields -- and their ATP equivalent, the Challenger tour -- don't usually boast Grand Slam champions. That's changing. Last year, Sofia Kenin played the Lleida WTA 125 in Spain, then promptly upset Ons Jabeur in Rome. In the same week that Osaka made her way to Saint-Malo, Bianca Andreescu played the Vic WTA 125 in Spain (falling to Kimberly Birrell in the first round). Earlier this year, 2014 US Open winner Marin Cilic set an ATP record for the longest gap between Challenger titles when he lifted the trophy in Girona.
"You have to accept that I'm not Top 100, Top 50 anymore, so you can't just pick and choose any tournament you want to play. It's time to put the head down, work, get back to Challengers and grind it out," Cilic told atptour.com.
Osaka wasn’t thinking about Cilic -- or even "Challengers," which she had seen -- during her week in Saint-Malo. Instead, she drew motivation from the real-life chapter of tennis history that inspired "Challengers" when former ATP No. 1 Andre Agassi dropped down to that level during his late-'90s comeback.
"I remember reading [Agassi's] book," she said. "There was a moment where he was flipping his own scoreboards. Someone came and yelled, 'Image is everything!' I would say that section of the book crossed my mind more."
Osaka's Saint-Malo jaunt wasn't all smooth sailing. In the second round, she found herself trailing Diane Parry 4-1 in the third set before recovering to win the last five games in a row. Osaka says she was "stressed out" in that match, but not because of what pundits would say. She simply missed her daughter, Shai.
"I was thinking, I wonder if the time would have been spent better after Madrid going to see her really quickly as opposed to playing the tournament," she said. "Luckily, I was able to snap out of that."
And the week had a doubly sweet ending. Not only did Osaka come away with the trophy, but on coach Patrick Mouratoglou's recommendation she had her first taste of a French dessert treat.
"I've never had a crêpe before, but I had a crêpe after the final, and it was the best crêpe of my life," Osaka said. "Patrick recommended butter and sugar, and that is what I did. It was amazing."
