WTA: Naomi Osaka attacks world class with Sascha Bajin

One of the surprises in the quarter-finals of the WTA Premier 5 tournament in Indian Wells is Naomi Osaka. Her coach Sascha Bajin plays a major role in this.

The separation between Sascha Bajin and Caroline Wozniacki at the end of last season came as a surprise to most observers of the tennis scene: The Danish woman had just crowned her great tennis year with the title at the WTA finals in Singapore, when she announced the consensual cessation of the employment relationship with her Hitting Partner Bajin.

On the other hand, it would probably be negligent to reduce the role of Bajin to serving a player balls at the right speed. The long years with Serena Williams, the shorter episodes alongside Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens qualify the Munich player like few others for the position of head coach in the tennis circus. In Team Wozniacki, however, father Piotr leads the regiment. And a strict one, too.

Naomi Osaka, that’s only right. The Japanese woman with a strong U. S. affiliation has secured the services of Bajin, but this time as the man who manages the entire company from a sporting point of view. The collaboration is beginning to bear fruit these days for Indian Wells, where Osake will meet Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals on Wednesday evening (local time). Particularly noteworthy is the fact that Osaka has shown itself to be up to various tasks. To the prelude of the great Maria Sharapova, who defeated her with interim problems in two sentences. With Agnieszka Radwanska, Osaka defeated a lady who also derives her strength from finesse. In round three, Sachia Vickery found her champion in Osaka, in the quarter-final Maria Sakkari.

The fact that Naomi Osaka is not afraid of big names was already evident last year at the US Open, where the defending champion Angelique Kerber defeated herself at the start. With a high risk, how the current number 44 in the world is setting up its game. The successes in Indian Wells have already given Osaka a new career high, and on Monday the 20-year-old will be in the worst case on position 36. There has long been no doubt that the Japanese woman’s blows hold the potential for greater success. But it is the attitude to work when things are not going in Osaka’s direction. Under Bajin this aspect has already improved considerably.

A reunion with Kerber is still possible: in the final. One of Sascha Bajin and Caroline Wozniacki was defeated by Daria Kasatkina in the second place of the world rankings.

Here the single tableau of the ladies in Indian Wells