Shy Osaka teams up with Venus to find way forward

Double slam champion Naomi Osaka is using the coronavirus pandemic to find a way to overcome her shyness.

Dual national Osaka, who lives and trains in the US, despite having Japanese citizenship, is taking advantage of the enforced break to find ways to live with her popularity and the scrutiny that comes with the job.

“I think people know me as being really shy … I want to take the quarantine time to just think about everything, and for me, I have a lot of regrets before I go to sleep,” Osaka told CNN Sport.

“Most of the regrets are because I don’t speak out about what I’m thinking. I feel like if I asserted myself, I would have gotten the opportunity to see what would have happened,” Osaka said.

Osaka believes tennis is not a top priority at the moment and is taking time to learn how to deal with the pressure.

“I want to take this time to learn something new because I’m pretty sure I won’t have this much free time ever again, the world No.10 said.

“It’s not like I’ll forget how to play tennis.”

With no access to gyms and tennis courts, the 22-year-old has found a new training partner in former world No.1 Venus Williams.

The pair share a workout session on social media.

“I don’t want to train five hours a day right now because I think that’s how you get burned out and you never know when tournaments will start again,” Osaka said.

“So I do an Instagram session with Venus. It’s kind of more intense than I thought it was going to be.

“For some reason I thought we were going to be stretching, but yeah, we were doing a bit of movement drills and then lunges and stuff.”