But Osaka is uncertain, although she may travel to Berlin to play in the new grass-court event that will count towards her ranking. “Ove...
But Osaka is uncertain, although she may travel to Berlin to play in the new grass-court event that will count towards her ranking.
“Overall, I feel like I’m going to stop telling myself I’m bad on these surfaces,” she said of grass and clay, “and at the place, keep your head down and keep working really hard, because I think that’s what I’ve been doing all year. I can’t expect everything to happen at once. I hope so that, gradually, I will have the results I want.
So far, she has four Grand Slam singles titles, all on hard courts, most recently at the 2021 Australian Open about 16 months ago. The pecking order changes and is not in his favor. After breaking down in tears mid-match at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., in March after a heckler rocked her in a second-round loss, she bounced back to reach the final of the Miami Open, where Swiatek beat her, 6-4, 6-0.
Osaka, who plays for Japan and is based in the United States, remains one of the biggest stars in the sport and the highest paid female athlete in the world by far. She has enough lucrative long-term endorsement deals to justify recently break up with IMG to set up his own management agency with Stuart Duguid, his agent.
But Osaka will be ranked around world No. 40 after Roland Garros, and while his portfolio looks strong in redwood, how does that affect the bottom line and his place in the sporting landscape if a young player like Swiatek takes the real control of the sport and younger, possibly hungrier players like Anisimova continue to dominate Osaka at the start of major tournaments?
To what extent, in the age of social media, should results and stardom continue to align once the millions of followers are already acquired?
Osaka, left ankle wrapped, seemed genuinely determined to change her luck on Monday, digging into the corners and maintaining positive energy almost to the end. But Anisimova has been more consistent on serve and more devastating from the baseline and, crucially, on the returns.
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