Naomi Osaka +11 in rankings as she reveals why she initially wanted to ‘avoid’ Patrick Mouratoglou
Naomi Osaka is set to return to the top 70 in the WTA Rankings for the first time since 2023 after she kicked off her new partnership with Patrick Mouratoglou on a winning note at the China Open.
Former world No 1 Osaka started this campaign outside the top 800 after she missed the entire 2023 season as she was on maternity leave, but she has steadily made her way up the rankings.
The four-time Grand Slam winner started her WTA 1000 Beijing campaign at No 73 in the official WTA Rankings – her best position since March 2023 – but has jumped to No 62 in the Live Rankings after a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over Lucia Bronzetti in the first round.
But her path will become trickier as she faces 21st seed Yulia Putintseva next while victory over the Kazakh player could earn her a third-round match against 15th seed Marta Kostyuk.
But for Osaka this win was her first under the guidance of Mouratoglou, who has coached the likes of Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Holger Rune.
The Japanese star admitted she was initially hesitant to team up with Mouratoglou due to his “big persona” and the fact that he was Serena’s coach”.
“I think the fact that he was Serena’s coach for me made me want to avoid him just because [of] his persona is so big,” she explained.
“Then I met him, talked to him, worked with him on the court. He absolutely is a really good coach. I’m really glad that he’s taking this project on as well.”
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Osaka worked with Wim Fissette from 2020 until the beginning of September as she replaced him with Mouratoglou as she “felt like she needed a change”.
“I like the way he coaches. I think it’s going to be really interesting,” the 26-year-old said.
“I think I’m at a stage in my life that I don’t want to have regrets. I’d rather pull the trigger on something and I don’t want to say ‘fail’, but I feel like I really need to learn as much as possible in this stage of my career.
“Patrick seemed like the guy with I guess the information that I wanted to learn from.”
But don’t for a minute think Osaka plans to chop and change coaches regularly.
The two-time US Open winner added: “I try not to get into relationships with people for short-term. I try to think of it as a long-term commitment.”
