"Never done that even when she was peak Naomi Osaka" - Andy Roddick praises Japanese for "scheduling aggressively", lauds her showing on clay & grass
Andy Roddick has heaped praise on Naomi Osaka for her aggressive scheduling in the ongoing 2024 tennis season. The former ATP World No. 1 also lauded the Japanese's recent displays on clay and grass, two surfaces that have proved cumbersome for Osaka in the past.
Naomi Osaka's tennis comeback at the start of this season after her maternity leave initially got off to a tepid start. The Japanese, unsurprisingly rusty after almost a year out of the sport, struggled to find her rhythm across multiple tournaments, which resulted in several early exits. However, there have been recent instances that indicate the four-time Grand Slam winner's slow but sure progress.
Arguably the most striking of those came in the second round of the 2024 French Open, where Naomi Osaka squared off against eventual champion Iga Swiatek. For the most part of the match, the Japanese seemed in command, going toe-to-toe with the Pole, a rarity on the WTA Tour. She even had a match point in the third and deciding set. Unfortunately for her, Swiatek won five games on the spin to clinch the match 7-6(1), 1-6, 7-5.
The Japanese has also shown promising signs on grass, where she reached the quarterfinals of the Libema Open before losing to Bianca Andreescu. Recently, Roddick assessed Osaka's form going into the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. The 2003 US Open winner commended Osaka's decision to play at back-to-back tournaments, saying that she rarely used to do the same even when she was the WTA World No. 1.
"Listen, she's coming back. My favorite thing is that she's scheduling aggressively. She played last week, she played this week. She's never done that in her entire career or even when she was peak Osaka. And I think we're starting to see those moments of that high level from Naomi. Obviously, the errors are coming a little bit more often than they did when she was in her prime," Roddick said during an appearance on Tennis Channel.
The 41-year-old also expressed confidence about Osaka's performances on both clay and grass so far this year.
"Also, I think she's making this progress on surfaces that she doesn't really like, that aren't natural to her. On the clay, we saw her giving Swiatek hell in the French Open. (She was) the only one who was on the same stratosphere as her (Swiatek) for two hours of that tournament. And then I like what she's doing on the grass," Roddick added.
However, Osaka's latest outing at the German Open, a grasscourt WTA 500 event, resulted in a 4-6, 6-3, 3-6 first-round loss against Zheng Qinwen.
Kim Clijsters recently compared Naomi Osaka to Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on Andy Roddick's podcast
Kim Clijsters, a former WTA World No. 1 in both singles and doubles, recently featured as a guest on an episode of the Served With Andy Roddick podcast. Here, she found similarities between Naomi Osaka and Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid's Belgian goalkeeper.
Courtois missed the majority of the 2023-2024 season for Real Madrid with multiple injuries. However, he came back in time for the UEFA Champions League final, where he was a surprise starter. The Belgian produced several crucial saves in the final against Borussia Dortmund, helping Madrid to its 15th Champions League title.
According to Clijsters, Naomi Osaka's situation is somewhat similar to that of Courtois, even though the Japanese's long absence on the WTA Tour stemmed from her pregnancy.
"(Courtois) had surgery, took him a while. Came back. Had to have another surgery and he didn't play the whole season. Ended up playing the Champions League final and played incredible. So we were texting at times and he's like, 'Yeah, I'm going to see how I feel when I get back out there,' and I'm like, 'You'll be fine. You'll remember it like this'. And I feel like it's the same with Osaka. Yes it's taken her a little bit of time, but physically, once you've put the time in, the habits and the routines...like she hasn't been away from the game long enough to say, 'Oh it's going to take a long time for me to recover,'," Clijsters said.