Naomi Osaka explains Nick Kyrgios role in Miami Open win vs Angelique Kerber

Naomi Osaka opened up on some of the outside factors that helped her get her first top 15 win since the 2021 Australian Open in her Miami Open second-round win over Angie Kerber. The former world No 1 has suffered some early exits in her last few tournaments but managed to overcome the 13th seed 6-2 6-3 in an hou on Thursday.

Osaka's win over Kerber was her first top 20 win since last year's Miami Open, and first top 15 win since her run to the Australian Open title last year. It was also just the second time she defeated the three-time Grand Slam champion in six meetings.

The 24-year-old has struggled with her form of late, barely playing in the last year and going out in the third-round of both the US Open and Australian Open, also suffering a second-round exit in Indian Wells last week when she was reduced to tears by a heckler in the crowd. The former world No 1 has since revealed she has started therapy after the Indian Wells incident and has been in a much bette place already in her opening two rounds in Miami.

But it's not just her own work that has gotten her to a third-round clash with Karolina Muchova at the Miami Open, Osaka admitted that a training session with Nick Kyrgios had helped her improve her game. The pair enjoy a friendly relationship off the court and hit together after Indian Wells last week, with the current world No 77 keen to learn a certain technique from the Aussie.

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"I hit with Nick in LA, and I was watching his like form from very close up, and he does like this slide thing and then he puts his two feet together and helps him explode more," Osaka revealed in her post-match press conference. "I have been really focusing