Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka says her decision to part ways with her coach was because she wanted a ‘different energy.’
The former world No.1 announced earlier this month that she has split with Wim Fissette after working with him since 2019. Under his guidance, Osaka won the 2020 US Open and 2021 Australian Open. However, in recent months she has endured a roller-coaster journey on the Tour and has taken time away from the sport due to mental health issues.
Speaking to reporters on Monday at the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Osaka paid tribute to her former mentor. Fissette has worked with a series of top players on the WTA Tour, including Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka, Simon Halep and Angelique Kerber.
“He’s an amazing coach and we didn’t part on bad terms,” said Osaka. “I felt like I needed a different energy. He’s an ambitious guy and I’m sure he would have wanted to go to Wimbledon, so it was kind of like two different mind-sets.”
For the foreseeable future, Osaka has turned to a familiar face to help her – her father Leonard Francois who is acting as her main coach. Leonard was Osaka’s principal coach early on in her career until 2018.
“He makes me think outside the box. Whenever I think something is really bad, he makes me realize things are much more positive than they seem,” she said of her father. “When I’m stressed out, he starts dancing to make me feel better. So, it’s nice to have him around and to remember the times when I was a kid.”
This week will be the first time Osaka has played on the Tour since suffering a first round defeat at the French Open on May 23rd. She opted to miss this year’s Wimbledon, which didn’t offer any ranking points, due to a leg injury.
It was in San Jose where Osaka played and won her first Tour match. In 2014 she came through qualifying before upsetting Sam Stosur in the first round. That triumph occurred when the tournament was held at Stanford University.
Eight years on from that milestone, the 24-year-old says the most important thing for her now is to enjoy the sport.
“I just would like to have fun and I know I say that very often, basically every tournament for the last year now, but to genuinely have fun,” wtatennis.com quoted Osaka as saying. “I was telling my dad literally this morning when we were practising in the rain, years ago we would have to fight to practice on public courts. It was just me and my sister and my dad alone.
“Now I’ve gotten to the point where people pay to watch me play, and for that I am very grateful. I would have never imagined that as a child. Just having fun and being grateful in the moment and trying to engage with everyone to the best of my abilities.”
Osaka will play China’s Zheng Qinwen in the first round.
