Swiatek & Sabalenka Will Want To Avoid Osaka On Her Comeback Says Schett
WTA
While a lot of fans might be excited to see Naomi Osaka back in tennis, most other players won't be excited to see her back on the WTA Tour.
Most of them will likely play it cool and praise Osaak and her comeback to the sport but she's nothing more than a problem for most of them. If you're Iga Swiatek, you can't be that excited about a really good tennis player coming back to the sport.
It will make your job tougher, especially if Osaka is truly as motivated as she seems to be. Aryna Sabalenka certainly won't be thrilled by yet another competitor for trophies. Fans will love it, though, as it will make the Tour more exciting overall.
Regarding the analysts, Barbara Schett tends to believe that Swiatek and Sabalenka, who recently bested Ons Jabeur in Riyadh, would like to bypass Osaka Down Under. She spoke about that during her most recent interview with Eurosport.
I think she still has a lot of tennis in her. I've seen a few videos of the way she was practicing; she's looking fit. We know that she can hit the ball extremely hard, so pace is not going to be a problem at all. And one thing is for sure, an Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina, does not want to play against somebody like Naomi Osaka. The pressure will be on for them.— Schett on Sabalenka and Swiatek dealing with Osaka<br>
The assumption by Schett is correct in the sense that these players ideally don't want any more competition. On another note, they love competing, so Osaka coming back strong might actually energize the whole Tour, including those players.
Rivalries drive a sport forward anyway, so the more we have, the better it is. Time will tell what the comeback looks like and whether she's a match for any of these players.
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