Osaka finds success under fresh coaching regime

Naomi Osaka blasted out of the gates after a change of coaches to reach the second round of the China Open  6-3, 6-2 over 77th-ranked Italian Lucia Bronzetti on Wednesday.

The ATP-WTA event which has been expanded to fill the new two-week time slots dictated by tennis bosses, features a depleted women’s field, with world No. 1 Iga Swiatek skipping the trip for personal reasons and Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina among the missing.

Japan’s Osaka is back in the Chinese capital for the first time since her 2019 title here before the Covid outbreak which shut down tennis six months later.

The No. 73 who returned to the WTA after childbirth, is now guided by former Serena Williams mentor Patrick Mouratoglou after parting with Wim Fisette.

Osaka is pleased with her decision: “I’m at a stage in my life that I don’t want to have regrets.

“I’d rather pull the trigger on something… I really need to learn as much as possible in this stage of my career. Patrick seemed like the guy with I guess the information that I wanted to learn from.”

She added: “I try not to get into relationships with people for the short-term. I try to think of it as a long-term commitment. I like the way he coaches. I think it’s going to be really interesting.”

Former No. 1 Osaka fought back from a break down in the second set against Bronzetti as she duplicated a straight-sets win from Roland Garros this season.

The Japanese advanced in 83 minutes with 30 winners into a match against Yulia Putintseva.