Australian Open 2019: Expectant youth meets nervous experience as Naomi Osaka and Petra Kvitova collide
Osaka is buoyed by the momentum from her US Open victory last season but in Kvitova she meets a first-time opponent who is starting to work out the methods needed to get back to the top
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Your support makes all the difference.Naomi Osaka, who turned 21 only three months ago, will play in her second successive Grand Slam final when she faces Petra Kvitova here at the Australian Open on Saturday, but the world No 4 still feels that success has been a long time coming.
“Man, for me it feels like it took a while,” Osaka said. “I've always wanted to get to the second week of a Grand Slam. I only did that last year for the first time here. Now it definitely means a lot that I've got to the final.”
Perhaps Osaka’s attitude is down to the impatience of youth. She made her Grand Slam debut here only three years ago and it was only at last summer’s French Open that she was seeded for the first time at a Grand Slam event.
The strides she has made since then have been stunning. Having won her first Grand Slam title at last year’s US Open, when she stayed calm amid the chaos surrounding Serena Williams’ run-in with the umpire, Osaka has reached the semi-finals or better in four of her five subsequent tournaments. She is the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to follow up her maiden Grand Slam title by reaching the final in her next Grand Slam tournament.
Osaka said it was “a little bit unreal” to have reached a second successive final. “At the same time I realise the work that I put in during the off-season,” she said. “Every match that I played, I tried my best. It just felt like it was a continuous effort.”
First-time winners of Grand Slam titles often have trouble backing that up, but Osaka is an exception. “I love Grand Slams,” she said by way of explanation. “This is a place which I think makes all the training worthwhile.
“When you're little, you watch the Grand Slams, you watch all the players play, the legendary matches. For me, these are the most important tournaments. There are only four of them a year, so of course I want to do the best that I can here.”
Osaka thinks the key to her success has been keeping control of her emotions. “When I'm not calm, it just makes my life harder,” she said. “There is an inner peace I can tap into sometimes during my matches. It's kind of hard to get to, but once I'm there nothing can really bother me. That's just something that I'm trying to learn how to do consistently.”
Despite having been taken to three sets in three of her last four matches in this tournament Osaka has stayed mentally strong throughout.
“It definitely helped knowing that I won the US Open because I knew that I had the ability to win that many matches, play for that long,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about that while I was playing this tournament, but at the same time I haven’t wanted to dwell too much on it.”
Winning in New York has fuelled her hunger for more success. “You want to do the next big thing,” Osaka said. “Especially now that I’ve won a Grand Slam, I feel like I want to win another one. I'm so close and I just want to keep going.”
Osaka said she had learned from her defeats, including her only loss so far this year, to Lesia Tsurenko in Brisbane in the first week of the campaign.
“The biggest thing I took away from that loss was the fact that I didn't really try 100 per cent,” she said. “I just accepted the fact that I was going to lose. I wasn't really focused on winning. Here I just wanted to make sure I tried 100 per cent on every point.”
Kvitova will be playing in her first Grand Slam final since she won the second of her Wimbledon titles in 2014. The 28-year-old Czech was often troubled by nerves at subsequent Grand Slam events and even joked after her first-round exit at Wimbledon last summer that she might play only smaller tournaments in future.
Staying away from the venue during the tournament has been one of the keys to Kvitova’s success here. “I'm really trying to be relaxed on my days off,” she said. “I'm not hitting on my days off either. All I’m doing is playing matches. I think that’s helping me to stay a little bit more free.”
Kvitova believes she will need to play her best tennis to win. “Naomi is on fire,” she said. “She's in very good form. She's an aggressive player, which I am too.”
It will be the first career meeting between the two women. “To have the opportunity to play her for the first time in a final of a Grand Slam is amazing,” Osaka said. “I've watched her play the Wimbledon finals. I know what a great player she is. It's definitely going to be very tough for me.”
The temperature topped 40C here on Friday, but it will be cooler on Saturday, with 24C forecast for the time of the match. That should favour Kvitova, who has struggled in the heat in the past. Osaka, who was brought up in Florida, is used to hotter conditions.
Being a left-hander might also be to Kvitova’s advantage. Osaka has lost her last four matches against Angelique Kerber, the only other left-hander in the world’s top 10.
For both women the outcome of the first set is likely to be crucial. Osaka is an excellent front-runner, having won her last 59 matches in which she has won the opening set. She might have the edge in terms of stamina, though Kvitova is looking fitter than she has ever been.
Kvitova has been working hard both in the gym and on the running track over the last year and believes that being fitter has helped her mentally. “I know I can get more balls back and be out there for longer,” Kvitova said. “Even in the heat I'm able to be there and run and fight, no matter what is happening. Definitely everything is together. It's very connected. I'm happy about that.”
Whoever wins will replace Simona Halep as world No 1. Neither Osaka nor Kvitova have ever topped the rankings before.
“Of course that's a very big deal for me, but my main goal is winning this tournament,” Osaka said. “I think the ranking comes after that. I tend to do better if I focus on one goal.”
Kvitova agreed. “If it happens, it happens,” she said. “It would be a very nice bonus, but I'm really only thinking about the title.”
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