Naomi Osaka jokes she might copy Rafael Nadal and play left-handed

Naomi Osaka has joked that she may start playing left-handed in an attempt to emulate tennis legend, Rafael Nadal. 

Osaka is a four-time major champion and former world number one, but it’s no secret that she’s struggled on clay throughout her career. 

The 24-year-old is yet to win a title on the surface and has never reached beyond the third round of the French Open. 

Nadal, on the other hand, is unarguably the greatest clay-court player of all time, having won a record 13 titles at Roland-Garros. 

Osaka has already stressed this season that she feels as though she can improve on clay and has now admitted that she’s tried to copy Nadal on certain things, in order to adapt her game for the surface. 

Speaking in the build-up to this week’s Madrid Open, Osaka explained that she has altered a couple of things ahead of the start of her clay-court season. 

“I changed a couple of things. I think you guys will be able to tell when I play, I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I would say I did change a couple of things to suit myself more for clay,” Osaka said in her press conference on Wednesday. 

Referring to Nadal and watching videos of the Spanish star, she said: “Yes, I think I stole one of the things that he did and I’ve been practising it recently.

“It’ll either go really good or really bad. There’s like no in between. But I think as I’ve been doing it, it’s been going pretty well.”

As much as the Japanese star is trying to learn from Nadal, there is only so much she can copy. 

Nadal is left-handed, while Osaka is right-handed, though the 24-year-old joked that perhaps she could make the transition. 

Asked if she’d ever play left-handed, Osaka laughed and said: “Imagine.” 

She added: “I’ve actually been warming up kind of