Naomi Osaka ahead of Madrid tournament: Nervous... have not played on clay

Former No. 1 Naomi Osaka enters the clay-court season with the goal of not being too hard on herself. Osaka, 24, made the final in Miami last month and will be playing as a wild-card entry when the Madrid Open begins on Thursday.

Speaking on Wednesday, Osaka said she is "nervous, haven't played on clay ...so I might as well just see how it goes and kind of get that those nerves out of my system."

"Kind of nervous about it, about the same time I feel like I haven't played on clay for a little minute, so I might as well just see how it goes and kind of get that those nerves out of my system."

"Honestly not so sure. Like Wim (Fissette) created a game plan and I've kind of just been training every day. And I also don't have that much experience with clay to be able to know, like, what's different from what. Too much so. Yeah. Just kind of winging it."

"I feel pretty good. It's my first red clay tournament, so I'm excited to see how it goes."

Osaka's first match in Madrid will be against a qualifier. If she wins, her next opponent will be either French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo, who beat Osaka on clay at the Billie Jean Cup in 2020