One of my goals is to do split forehand like Kim Clijsters & Serena Williams: Naomi Osaka on adding ballet dancer to her team

Naomi Osaka recently talked about the addition of ballet teacher Simone Elliott to her team and how it has been beneficial for her game. Osaka revealed that the reason for adding the dance coach to her team is to play split forehands like tennis legends Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters.

Osaka is currently competing at the 2024 Canadian Open. She was granted a wild card entry to the main draw of the WTA 1000 tournament and she kicked off her campaign by defeating ninth seed Ons Jabeur 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and 12 minutes in the first round.

During the post-match press conference, Naomi Osaka credited ballet teacher Simone Elliott for improving her movement on the court. She expressed that Elliott's contributions, along with the guidance of strength and conditioning coach Florian Zitzelsberger, are helping her stay injury-free.

"I think that Simone's [Elliott] helped my movement a lot. She's also kind of my mental coach . I said kind of, but she actually is my mental coach. Yeah, honestly, I haven't gotten injured this entire time, and I want to, like, you know, thank her for that, her and Flo [Florian Zitzelsberger]," Osaka said.

The former World No.1 stated that her collaboration with Simone Elliott has been focused on mastering the split forehand technique, like the ones Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters used to play.

"I've been doing ballet lessons with her, so I told her one of my goals is to do the really famous, like [Kim] Clijsters and Serena [Williams], like, split forehand, so hopefully maybe in the next couple of months, if you see it on court, just know we've been working very hard on it," she added.

Naomi Osaka on doing ballet: "It's very interesting, feels like a portal into a new world"

Naomi Osaka [Source: Getty]

Earlier this year, during a press conference, Naomi Osaka talked about having ballet coach Simone Elliott on her team. She revealed that she had taken some ballet classes and found them to be both "hard" and "interesting."

"I can't really say what kind of exercises she uses because she never really names them; we just do them. Sometimes, well, like three times, we did a ballet class. It's so hard . I respect ballet and ballerinas so much . But it's very interesting . It feels like a portal into a new world," Osaka said .

Osaka expressed that practicing ballet has heightened her body awareness in ways she had never experienced before. She also said that she intends to improve her ballet skills over time.

"I feel very aware of my body in ways that I've never felt before. So that's also something about which I'm fascinated to know what happens if I keep training this way, and hopefully I'll get better and better," she added.

Following her win over Ons Jabeur in the first round of the 2024 Canadian Open, Naomi Osaka will next go up against Elise Mertens in the second round.