{"id":14884,"date":"2025-06-26T00:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T00:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/14884\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T00:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T00:31:09","slug":"serena-williams-former-coach-suggests-exactly-what-is-going-wrong-for-naomi-osaka-as-she-suffers-defeat-to-emma-navarro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/14884\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams’ former coach suggests exactly what is going wrong for Naomi Osaka as she suffers defeat to Emma Navarro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Naomi Osaka suffers another disappointing defeat and will go into Wimbledon with just three grass court matches under her belt.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Japanese player had a bright start to the season after reaching the final of Auckland\u2019s ASB Classic<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

But since then, the 27-year-old has suffered some injuries and has lost several close matches early in tournaments.<\/p>\n

However, Osaka did win her first clay court title<\/a> on the WTA Tour\u2019s<\/a> secondary professional tennis circuit at the L\u2019Open 35 de Saint-Malo.<\/p>\n

While the former world number one is competitive in many of these matches, she is struggling to turn many of them into wins, and Serena Williams\u2019<\/a> former coach thinks he knows why.<\/p>\n

\"DayPhoto by Mathias Schulz\/Newhouse Media\/MB Media\/Getty ImagesRick Macci thinks he knows what Naomi Osaka is doing wrong in matches after her defeat to Emma Navarro<\/strong><\/p>\n

Osaka took on Emma Navarro<\/a> at the Bad Homburg Open. She was broken to love in set one, which allowed Navarro to move ahead 5-4 in the opening set, before the American successfully served out the set.<\/p>\n

The four-time Grand Slam champion missed a golden opportunity to break serve in the second set, but she squandered a 0-40 advantage while leading 2-1.<\/p>\n

Navarro then broke serve later in the set to move ahead 5-4, and as she did in set one, closed out the set and the match to win.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Post-match Williams\u2019 former coach Rick Macci<\/a> outlined the struggles facing Osaka, who hit 42 unforced errors against Navarro.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome players maybe cannot play as well on grass because they do not like it. Remember if you do not like it the grass feels the same way about you Osaka,\u201d Macci posted on social media platform X.<\/p>\n

\u201cOsaka and her serve on grass is one of the best if she is using her slice. Her serve alone can keep her right there with anybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she is not controlling the baseline like in the past and her ability to run through balls and produce quality is a few milliseconds late.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThePhoto by Al Bello\/Getty ImagesEmma Navarro assesses Naomi Osaka\u2019s performance and playing Jessica Pegula next<\/strong><\/p>\n

Navarro has won both of her matches against Osaka and has yet to lose a set against her.<\/p>\n

She will next play Jessica Pegula,<\/a> who she has yet to defeat, but Navarro is looking forward to the challenge of going up against her fellow American.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I played a lot of good tennis,\u201d Navarro said during her on-court interview. \u201cSo did she, she made it really tough on me. Definitely there\u2019s some things to work on too, so I\u2019ll be looking forward to improving for next round.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Pegula] might be listening from the hotel, so I can\u2019t give away too much,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cI have to keep my cards close to my chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cJess is awesome, she\u2019s been a really great role model for me coming up. We\u2019ve shared a lot of great experiences on the court and off court.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe brings a great energy to the tour, she\u2019s very chill, very relaxed, and very smart as well. So I have a lot to learn from her.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka suffers another disappointing defeat and will go into Wimbledon with just three grass court matches under…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[15187,6115,5224,62,1464,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-14884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-emma-navarro","9":"tag-naomi-osaka","10":"tag-serena-williams","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114746850334688926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}