Naomi Osaka understands the difficulty of playing Iga Swiatek at the 2024 Roland Garros, but she doesn't lower her expectations of herself when facing the Pole.
It's tough to face the best player in the world on their preferred surface at one of their historically best events. The Japanese player will get a taste of that when she faces Swiatek in the second round of the 2024 Roland Garros.
They haven't played since they met in the Miami Open final back in 2022, so many are wondering how it might go. The Polish player is widely considered the favorite to win that match and for a good reason.
She is 15-1 on clay this year and is on an active 13-match winning streak heading into this meeting. Osaka hasn't really played on that level but she's not going into the match with a defeatist attitude. She wants to give it her all and go in expecting to be competitive and possibly win the match.
"Um, in a weird way, I definitely do feel like it's a test to see where I'm at, but I wouldn't say I have low expectations of myself. I'm a person that kind of thinks that I can win every match that I play. That's kind of gotten me this far. I would never play a match thinking lowly of myself, no."
That's the right attitude to have when facing such a good player. The former world no. 1 knows she can't go into the match doubting whether she can win because then she will likely not win.
Sometimes, it's really that simple, and Osaka is not going to fall into that trap. That doesn't mean that she'll actually be competitive or win the match, but it's a decent starting point. The match will be played on Wednesday, May 29th.
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