Tennis-Osaka’s confidence boosted by nostalgic return to New York

(Reuters) – For Naomi Osaka, returning to the U.S. Open is all about rekindling some childhood nostalgia rather than going back to the scene of her success, the Japanese player said on Saturday.

Since returning to action after a 15-month maternity break in January, Osaka has struggled to recapture the form that earned her the U.S Open title in 2018 and 2020. In her most recent outing, she went out in the second round of qualifying at the Cincinnati Open.

Born in Japan but raised in New York, Osaka will hope for a better return to the U.S. Open than she had in Australia, where she had also won twice, going out at the first hurdle to Caroline Garcia.

“I feel like, throughout the year I have had really hard matches, and it kind of dipped my confidence a little,” Osaka told reporters on Saturday.

“I do think coming to this specific tournament helps me out. But also, whenever I step foot here, I don’t really think about the two tournaments I won.

“I just think about how I felt when I was a kid, because I did grow up coming here, and I have such vivid memories of watching my favourite players. It’s more of a childhood nostalgia that I really enjoy.”

Osaka was also in New York as a spectator last year, and drew inspiration from Coco Gauff’s win, and wants to put in her best performance at the U.S. Open after failing to advance past the second round at both Wimbledon and the French Open this year.

“When I was watching Coco’s match last time I was here, I felt very inspired to play again. At that time, I didn’t know at what level could I play,” Osaka said.

“Obviously I want to be in the top 10, and I want to do all these things, but I still, in the back of my mind, remember not being able to run, if that makes sense, or not being able to do a sit-up.

“But I came here with the specific goal of doing the absolute best that I can. I was watching in the stands last year, and I promised myself, this is going to be the tournament where I do the best.”

The U.S. Open begins on Monday, with Osaka taking on Latvian 10th seed Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Pritha Sarkar)