Naomi Osaka shrugs off early Madrid Open exit as she sees her glass as half full

WTA Tour
Naomi Osaka in action

Naomi Osaka took plenty of positives from her second-round defeat to Karolina Muchova at the Madrid Open, insisting “I have a pretty positive outlook on it”.

Playing in her first clay-court tournament since the 2019 French Open, Osaka won her opening match against Misaki Doi comfortably before coming unstuck against Muchova on Sunday.

The world No 2, who is yet to win a WTA tournament on the red dirt, suffered a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 defeat to the unseeded Czech.

However, the four-time Grand Slam winner was pleased with several aspects of her game.

“I have a pretty positive outlook on it,” she said. “I can control my attitude and how hard I fought and for me, I thought I did that really well.

“Physically I don’t think I got tired. I just made some pretty bad decisions point-wise in really crucial moments.

“So I think I’ll learn from that, and hopefully – I don’t really want to play her on clay anymore – but maybe next time we play, I’ll make better decisions.

“I’m really happy with how I was able to talk with my team after I lost and after I came off the court. I think we really have a plan now, so I think it’s good.”

Up next is the Italian Open starting on May 10, but for Osaka it is all about hitting top form at the French Open.

“These tournaments are called warm-up tournaments and of course we all come here to win and do well at these tournaments too, but I would prefer to peak at the French as opposed to winning this tournament and then kind of going downhill,” she said.

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Naomi Osaka

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