Naomi Osaka doesn't have any expectations from her comeback in Australia, but she has confidence and a lot of it, as she believes she can win a Grand Slam.
Is Naomi Osaka good enough to win a Grand Slam? Yes. Will Naomi Osaka win a Grand Slam in 2024? Maybe. And that's what it really comes down to. The Japanese player is undoubtedly one of the best players in the world when she's at her peak.
That peak is good enough to win not one but multiple Grand Slams. The question really is whether she'll find that peak ever again, and if she does, how long did it take her to get there?
We don't really have an answer to that, but one of the key things to getting there will be confidence. She has to believe in herself because if she doesn't, she simply won't get there.
It's about as simple as that and Osaka does have plenty of confidence, as she revealed in the latest interview with Tennis Majors.
"I don’t want to put pressure on myself, but I do think I can win a slam this year. It’s a long season and I’ve beefed up my schedule with more tournaments to give myself more match play. I think that I’ll be in a great place come summer hard court swing."
That's a pretty reasonable timeline for Osaka, who looked pretty good upon her return. She won her first match back against Tamara Korpatsch 6-3 7-6(9) and nearly won the second match back against Karolina Pliskova, losing 6-3 6-7(4) 4-6, and that's about as good of a return as she could have hoped for.
Word about her intense practices spread around weeks ago, and the tennis she played certainly backed up the claims that she worked hard. The expectations for the Australian Open are low, but the self-belief is high. We'll see what ends up happening in Melbourne.
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