Just two years later, Osaka claimed the first Grand Slam of her career at the US Open, which showed vast improvements in her game .

But in her younger years, Chris Evert was unsure how the Japanese player was trying to approach the game.

Chris Evert found Naomi Osaka’s style of play as a youngster ‘confusing’

Following her successful playing career that yielded 18 Grand Slams singles titles, Evert opened a tennis academy along with her brother John in 1996.

In the mid-2010’s, a young player with great promise walked through the doors and she caught Evert’s attention, and that was Naomi Osaka.

The American certainly felt Osaka had plenty of talent, but after watching her for the first time, she could not understand why she was playing so aggressively.

“I remember Naomi and her dad came to our academy, and they were practicing about — I would say about three years ago before she really started to make it big,” Evert previously said.

“When I watched her play, she would hit two balls in the court and the third one would go in the fence. That was about three years ago.

“And I remember thinking, why is she trying to hit the ball so hard? Why? Why doesn’t she keep a couple of balls in the court? But she was so powerful with her serve and her groundies, but so inconsistent three years ago.”

Naomi Osaka changed her style and achieved more success due to a coaching change

Evert went on to say that Osaka refined her game under coach Sascha Bajin, who guided her to two Grand Slam titles and the World number one ranking.

She has never previously been ranked above 40. In 2018 Osaka claimed the Indian Wells title before her first triumph at the US Open later that year.

She won 2018 with 40 wins and 20 defeats, while Osaka won 40 matches and lost 11 in 2019. Osaka’s 2020 win percentage was 84%, with 16 wins and three losses, the ebay of her career in a season.

Osaka began 2019 with the Australian Open crown before sealing victory in her home country of Japan.

These were the 27-year-old’s more consistent years, despite winning the 2020 US Open and 2021 Australian Open.

In 2024, Osaka played for the first time since 2022 and won 20 of her 36 matches, with a win percentage of 56%. She will aim to improve on this number in 2025.