Naomi Osaka is a former WTA World No. 1 player and a four-time Grand Slam champion, but she wants to achieve much more in her tennis career.
Osaka is one of the most successful tennis players in the past decade. She managed to win four majors, but in her tennis career, she has always been seen as a hard-court specialist.
In fact, all four of her majors came on the hard courts. She won the Australian Open twice and the US Open twice, but she never managed to get past the third round at the French Open or Wimbledon.
Her success at the WTA 1000 events has also been limited mostly to hard-court tournaments. She won the Indian Wells Open and the China Open. But she would like to change that.
Osaka recently spoke to CNN and admitted that she really wants to win the Roland Garros and Wimbledon to complete a Career Grand Slam (winning each Grand Slam title at least once).
“I have a lot of goals going forward. For as long as I can play, I really want to win Wimbledon and Roland Garros (the French Open) and get a career Grand Slam.”
“It’s interesting when I hear from an outside perspective because, of course, all of the achievements (I’ve had so far) are great, but I always feel like there’s a lot more to do.”
Winning a Career Grand Slam is a very rare feat. In fact, only ten women in history managed to do that. This century, only Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova won all four Grand Slam titles.
Since 1970, only four other legendary players have done that: Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Steffi Graf. If Osaka manages to continue playing as well as she did on her comeback, she could certainly add her name to this list, and that’s what she wants to do.
“I think I’m playing really well, even from last year, the end of last year. I got injured there too. But I’ve beaten some really good players. So I hope that I can continue that trend.”
Up next, fans will have a chance to see Osaka on the tennis courts already before the Sunshine Double begins. She will play at the MGM Rewards Slam in Las Vegas.
The exhibition will be played on March 1st, and the four-time Grand Slam champion will meet Aryna Sabalenka, whose career has been very similar to that of Osaka so far. The Belarusian player also has two Australian Open titles and one less US Open title.
Osaka is looking forward to that exhibition. She admitted that while she rarely plays exhibition events, she wanted to play in Las Vegas, also as a preparation for the Indian Wells Open, which begins on March 5th.
“What I’m looking forward to the most is the atmosphere. I’ve been to Las Vegas before, but obviously never to play any tennis. So that should be really exciting.”
“I rarely play exhibitions, and it’s also the lead up into Palm Springs, Indian Wells. So I hope that you know, there’s a lot of really good tennis to be played.”
