Naomi Osaka is back, she’s out to have fun, and she couldn’t care less what the watching world thinks. Or, as she put it on a recent social media Q&A: “People are always gonna have something to say and IDGAF any more”.
“Dang, you saw that?” Osaka chuckled after launching the defence of her Australian Open title with an assured 6-3, 6-3 win over Camila Osorio, the world No 50. “I deleted it like three minutes after.”
Welcome to the world of the new Naomi, a carefree refuge from the tribulations of last year, when Osaka began the summer by withdrawing from the French Open to protect her mental health and ended it with a tearful announcement that she would be taking an indefinite break from the game. The former world No 1 appears to be in a better place both on and off the court, and how tennis needs her after the unsavoury events that have dominated the headlines in recent days.
Ironically, the Novak Djokovic saga might actually have helped Osaka, whose return to the sport would otherwise have been more fully in the spotlight ahead of the season’s first slam. Instead, she has been able to slip quietly under the radar, reaching the last four at the Melbourne Summer Set before an abdominal injury forced her withdrawal.
That will soon change if she continues to produce the kind of form that blew away Osorio in the early stages here. The Colombian, a former junior world No 1 who, at the age of 20, is just beginning to find her feet at senior level, must have wondered what she had got herself into. Caught in a maelstrom of exquisitely-timed winners, Osorio found herself 5-0 down in the blink of an eye despite barely putting a foot wrong. Unsurprisingly, after so long away from the game, Osaka struggled to maintain her stratospheric level of play, yet she was calm when the inevitable dip came, shrugging off her mistakes with a blithe air that augurs well for the challenges ahead.
“I just want to have fun, first of all,” explained Osaka, who is seeded 13th and expected to play Ashleigh Barty, the world No 1 and home favourite, in the last 16. “I can’t expect myself to win every match, but I do expect myself to have fun and challenge myself.
“For me, I came back when I wanted to come back. I just felt like there are situations where I previously would get upset. But at this point in my life, I’m here because I want to be here, and because I find that it’s fun for me. Might as well enjoy it while I still can.
“I think just to be playing on Rod Laver [Arena] and to have, like, such a good streak on Rod Laver is something I could be proud of and something I enjoy.”
Significantly, the politically dialled-in Osaka, whose social activism has earned her a reputation as a soft-spoken agent of change, carefully sidestepped questions about the Djokovic situation. “It didn’t really affect me,” she said. “I saw that it affected the men’s draw a little bit, so you might have to ask a men’s player.” Her media interrogators failed to take the hint – the first two questions at her press briefing concerned Djokovic, while the third was about Peng Shuai – and it is perhaps indicative of the work that remains to be done on that front that she subsequently had to shut down further questions on the subject. That she did so, however, is indicative of the positive shift in her mindset after the travails of last season.
“I would say I feel more comfortable in my skin,” said Osaka. “[It’s] human nature to feel uneasy, to want to please everyone and stuff like that. I feel like there was a time after French Open where I felt like everyone was judging me.
“It feels a bit weird when you go into a stadium to play and you’re kind of concerned what everyone’s gaze means. I’m not sure if I explained that well. Basically, right now I’m trying to learn how to be more selfish, but in a positive way.”
With a blockbuster showdown against Barty potentially on the horizon, such pragmatism will be needful. The top seed, who is seeking to end Australia’s 44-year wait for a homegrown champion, opened her campaign in emphatic style with a 6-0, 6-1 rout of Lesia Tsurenko. It was the perfect start for the world No 1, who was beaten by the Ukrainian qualifier at the Brisbane International four years ago and extended to a decider by the 32-year-old at Melbourne Park in 2020. There was never any prospect of a repeat this time. Barty dissected Tsurenko’s game with clinical precision, her power and variety proving too much for the former world No 23 as she stretched her run of consecutive service holds to 42, a streak that began during her winning start to the season in Adelaide.
“The last kind of five or six matches I felt like I found a really good rhythm on my service games,” said Barty. “I’ve been able to serve my way out of some tricky spots and play some 30-30 points while not falling too far behind in service games. That has been a massive part of my week in Adelaide, and again tonight.
“I think I did a pretty good job of winning first and second points. And if I didn’t, I was able to call that back and not dig myself into a hole where I was fighting off two or three break points in a row. I think [my ability] to manage service games has been really good.”
Elsewhere, Madison Keys brought an early end to Sofia Kenin’s challenge for a second title at Melbourne Park with a 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 victory. In a performance that belied her current ranking of 51, Keys fired 31 winners against her fellow American to underline the resurgent form she showed last week in Adelaide, where she won the sixth title of her career.