Naomi Osaka won her first-round match 6-3, 6-2 over Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti at the China Open in Beijing, making for a good debut under new coach Patrick Mouratoglou on Wednesday.
Mourataglou spent a decade as the coach of the legendary Serena Williams, and Osaka is eager to learn from him.
“I think I’m at a stage in my life that I don’t want to have regrets,” said Japan’s Osaka, a former No. 1 who returned to play this year after giving birth to her first child, a daughter. “I’d rather pull the trigger on something and — I don’t want to say ‘fail’ — but I feel like I really need to learn as much as possible in this stage of my career. Patrick seemed like the guy with I guess the information that I wanted to learn from.”
Osaka, soon to turn 27, has won four Grand Slam titles in her career. And she wants the coaching relationship to stick with Mourataglou, who coached Williams to 10 majors.
“I try not to get into relationships with people for short-term. I try to think of it as a long-term commitment. I like the way he coaches,” she said. “I think it’s going to be really interesting.”
Awaiting Osaka in the second round is 21st seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan. They’ve met five times in their careers, with Putintseva winning the first three matches but Osaka taking the two most recent ones.
Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia followed up her first-ever win last week at the Thailand Open with a 6-4, 6-0 triumph over Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine.
Alycia Parks, a Georgia native, won her first tour-level match since the Australian Open in January, staging a comeback to defeat Qiang Wang of China 1-6, 6-4, 6-2. She was one of five Americans to record victories on Wednesday, joining Hailey Baptiste, Taylor Townsend, Katie Volynets and Peyton Stearns.
Other winners included Diane Parry and Clara Burel of France, China’s Shuai Zhang and Xinyu Wang, and Yulia Starodubtsewa of Ukraine.
For the 35-year-old Zhang, her 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1) win over American McCartney Kessler was her first in 603 days — a span of 24 matches.
“I think that this is the perfect timing,” Zhang told WTA Insider. “My first win at a WTA tournament was 15 years ago at China Open, and then the next day I beat the No.1 player [Dinara Safina in 2009].”
Coco Gauff, also competing in Beijing, applauded Zhang’s persistence and attitude.
“It was tough to see her going through the streak,” Gauff told WTA Insider, “but honestly through it all you would have never noticed she was going through that. I’ve seen her literally five minutes after matches and she would still say hi to me and be so excited to see me, which, I’m not like that after I lose.
“That just shows the type of person she is. I’ve learned a lot from her.”
–Field Level Media
