Doha [Qatar], February 12 : Despite a disappointing start to her 2024 campaign, the four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka is feeling "motivated" and said "every minute matters for me" as she heads into the Qatar Open.
The 26-year-old, who gave birth to her daughter Shai last July, made her comeback in January and she reached the second round of the Brisbane International. She also suffered a close contest defeat to Caroline Garcia in her opening match at the Australian Open.
Following her 15-month break, Osaka plans to play a busier schedule, so those performances were definitely grounds for encouragement.
"Ironically, I'm waking up a lot more and I don't know if my brain just knows that she's awake on the other side of the world but I definitely sleep a lot more at home," Osaka told Sky Sports.
"I think it would be great for me to have such a clean mindset but I find myself feeling really bad because I want to do better in the tournaments to make it worth it when I am gone, so I have to juggle the mindset and know that this takes a lot of time. It's not a fast journey," she added.
"I definitely feel like I'm a lot more motivated and every minute matters for me," he added.
For the first time since 2018, the former world number one Osaka makes her way back to Doha, where she will square off against Garcia in a highly anticipated first-round match
"I'm feeling pretty good about myself which is a bit strange because I think I had less confidence in my last tournament but it's really nice to be back and playing the best players in the world," she said.
"I was changing my return a little bit so it's a bit tough to play a match and not feel comfortable with what you're doing. You kind of want to revert back to your old style but I think for me the biggest thing is being confident in myself and knowing that I don't have to go for winners when I don't need to and trusting myself a lot," she added.
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