Japanese star says she\u2019s keen to watch Spanish teen sensation practice this week in Madrid
\n MADRID
\nFormer women\u2019s world number one Naomi Osaka says Spanish teen sensation Carlos Alcaraz has spurred a new wave of excitement for men\u2019s tennis and says she is keen to watch him practice this week in Madrid.
\nOsaka, who is a wildcard at the Madrid Open, has been closely following Alcaraz\u2019s meteoric rise to the top-10, at just the tender age of 18, and will be keeping an eye on him in the Spanish capital this fortnight.
\n\u201cI feel like he\u2019s genuinely made everyone excited about the ATP and I haven\u2019t seen that in a very long time,\u201d Osaka told reporters at the Caja Magica, where she faces a qualifier in the opening round.
\nAlcaraz has amassed an impressive 23-3 win-loss record so far this season and has risen to a career-high No 9 in the world on the back of capturing three titles in Rio de Janeiro, Miami and Barcelona.
\nThe Spaniard is the youngest player to crack the top 10 since his compatriot Rafael Nadal achieved that feat at the same age 17 years ago.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not even really thinking about his age, like every time someone brings up his age, I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh wow, I forget, that\u2019s so cool\u2019,\u201d said 24-year-old Osaka.
\n\u201cI think just his game style, just how pumped he is, how I feel like I\u2019m watching him learn with every tournament.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know what his ranking was last year here, but I\u2019ve watched almost every tournament that he\u2019s played, the US Open when he played (Stefanos) Tsitsipas and just to see the growth I think is really exciting for everyone.\u201d
\nOsaka, who won all four of her Grand Slam titles on hard courts, is keen to translate that success to the red dirt this season.
\nShe prepared for the clay-court season by spending a few days training in Mallorca and said she has made some changes to her game, inspired by 13-time French Open champion Nadal.
\n\u201cI think I stole one of the things that he did and I\u2019ve been practising it recently,\u201d Osaka said, referring to Nadal.
\n\u201cIt\u2019ll either go really good or really bad. There\u2019s like no in between.
\n\u201cBut I think as I\u2019ve been doing it, it\u2019s been going pretty well.
\n\u201cHonestly I\u2019ve been wanting to watch the really good clay-court players practice because I feel like I\u2019m the type of person that learns really fast if I see it up close and honestly it\u2019s a bit of a waste to have all these really good professional tennis players and not watch them.\u201d
\nAfter making a tearful second-round exit at Indian Wells last month, where she was affected by a heckler in the crowd, Osaka rebounded in style in Miami, reaching the final before losing to world No 1 Iga Swiatek.
\nOsaka, who says she hopes to reach at least the semi-finals in Madrid or Rome in the build-up to Roland Garros, admits it was a difficult moment for her but is choosing to see it as a positive learning experience.
\n\u201cI feel like there are a lot of moments in my career that are like extremely sad for me at the time but I kind of later look back on it and I think to myself, \u2018Well that really made me grow as a person, and even though I really hated the experience, I\u2019m glad it happened to me\u2019,\u201d she explained.
\n\u201cFor me that\u2019s one of those moments. I wish it didn\u2019t happen, but also I\u2019m glad that it did.
\n\u201cI feel like it prepared me for a lot of things that may or may not happen but it\u2019s kind of like one of those things you have in your back pocket as experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japanese star says she\u2019s keen to watch Spanish teen sensation practice this week in Madrid MADRID Former women\u2019s world number one Naomi Osaka says Spanish teen sensation Carlos Alcaraz has spurred a new wave of excitement for men\u2019s tennis and says she is keen to watch him practice this week in Madrid. Osaka, who is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6616,6615,2746],"class_list":{"0":"post-258016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alcaraz","9":"tag-atp-tour","10":"tag-naomi-osaka"},"yoast_head":"\n