'I'm okay with playing on court 16': Naomi Osaka has no ego about lower billing after winning Challenger title

Naomi Osaka continued her winning form to start the day at the Rome Open winning 6-2, 6-3 against Sara Errani to reach the second round.

It comes off the back of Osaka winning in Saint Malo last week on the Challenger circuit, a step that was praised by many amid many players wanting to not go down a level due to their stature in the game.

One of the biggest names of the past decade, Osaka is a multiple Grand Slam champion and former World No.1 and said that she has no ego when it comes to court placement or even playing lower down.

She said she didn't come back to seek wildcards and higher positions than her form deserves and she took the step due to losing early in Madrid after feeling like her form was there going in. She said that putting too much pressure on herself led to wanting to drop down and it worked out perfectly as she saw off Kaja Juvan in the final and got those match wins in.

After an epic with Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros 12 months ago, Osaka gained a new footing on clay and it is one also she wants to explore.

"Obviously I played a really good match in the last year of Roland Garros and that maybe increased my love for clay. For me, everything is about experience and I guess I learned a lot and I'm trying to implement it in every match I play," said Osaka to Tennis Channel.

"I lost in the first round of Madrid which obviously really sucks because I trained so hard for three weeks at Patrick (Mouratoglou)'s academy. I put too much pressure on myself so just going to Saint Malo I just wanted to bring it back to basics and play a lot of matches. So I was really glad I was able to do that."

She also said as much after her latest win that it certainly had nothing to do with ego. “I don’t have an ego thing of not playing the challenger tour. I'm okay with playing on court 16. I don’t have to play centre court every time. That’s not why I came back.”

Match Statistics Errani vs. Osaka