China Open 2024: Ex-top-ranked tennis player Naomi Osaka made headlines on wednesday by beating Italian Lucia Bronzetti 6-3, 6-2 in an opener at the China Open. It was her first match under a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who seems to see a lot of talent and skill in her and was wise enough not to muddy her with frivolous advice. The young Osaka required just 83 minutes to win the encounter.

Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam winner, but she will be the marquee attraction on the first day of competition. She won China Open in 2019, but that event was not staged in the last four years, partly because of COVID-19, partly due to the WTA boycott of tournaments in China. Osaka will face the 21st seed, Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, in the next round.

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Osaka has been with Mouratoglou only for a few weeks following her decision to leave coach Wim Fissette after suffering a dismal defeat at the second round of the U.S. Open when she was just 26 years old. Fans are eagerly waiting to see how the new combination will alter her performance in the Asian swing of the women’s tour.

“I think I’m at a stage in my life that I don’t want to have regrets,” the Japanese star said Wednesday after her match. “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.”

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