After a tough French Open, Naomi Osaka is optimistic about Wimbledon

There was no hiding Naomi Osaka's frustration after her first-round loss to Paula Badosa at the French Open last month.

She had won the first set in a thrilling tiebreaker and battled for two hours and 21 minutes in front of an enthralled crowd at Court Philippe Chatrier. But ultimately she couldn't close out the match.

The 27-year-old struggled to speak in her news conference soon after.

"I feel like I should be doing better," she said with emotion in her voice. "I hate disappointing people. So, like, even with [coach] Patrick [Mouratoglou], I was thinking this just now, he goes from working with, like, the greatest player ever [Serena Williams] to, like, 'What the f--- this is? You know what I mean?"

She quickly apologized for cursing before sitting back in her chair, and looked on the verge of tears. The moderator asked if she needed a minute to regain her composure. She agreed and left the room.

It would have been understandable if she didn't come back, maybe even expected during an earlier stage of her career, but Osaka returned soon after. When asked how the match would make her stronger, she wasn't sure, but she found a silver lining as she spoke.

"I feel like I learn little things from each match," Osaka said. "I think I lost the tiebreaker in Rome, and I didn't lose the tiebreaker here. So, I mean, I am conscious of things when I'm playing, so maybe the next match I play I'll learn little things from today."

According to Mouratoglou, who has been working with Osaka since September, she's done just that, and he is more encouraged than ever by what he's seeing as Wimbledon gets underway. Osaka has moved on fully from what happened in Paris. And despite having never advanced past the third round at the All England Club, Mouratoglou said Osaka is optimistic, and is ready for her first-round match against qualifier Talia Gibson on Monday.

As a former world No. 1 and a four-time major champion, the external expectations and attention remain high. It comes with the territory. But Osaka, Mouratoglou and the rest of the team aren't thinking about winning titles, although they do believe they will come again.

"For the last two years she hasn't won as much as she has in the past, and it can be difficult to deal with," Mouratoglou told ESPN on Thursday. "So I think at this point it's much better to not expect anything and focus again on what she can control and what she wants to achieve rather than on the outcome ... I'm not focused too much on the results, but more on the game and what she produces in terms of game. And that's important, and I really believe it because in the end, if you think about it, the result is just the reward for having done the job well. The results will come if the focus is on the right place."

After the match against the tenth-seeded Badosa, Mouratoglou said they sat down and discussed what happened -- what went wrong, why her level dipped in the second set, and why she made some of the decisions on court that she made. He believed the more they understood about the loss, the more it could benefit her in the long run.

He also understood that she desperately needed a few days away from tennis. It had been a long clay-court season, during which she played four tournaments and won her first title (at the 125K Saint-Malo event) since returning from maternity leave at the start of the 2024 season. Osaka went home to Los Angeles and spent time with her almost-2-year-old daughter, Shai.

"I think that probably having [her daughter] will help her to get over her losses, being a mother," Chris Evert, the 18-time major champion and ESPN analyst, said last week. "I think that's a wonderful thing to have that in her life, and I think that [gives her] perspective."

That perspective is something Osaka has spoken openly about since returning to the tour. While she had struggled with her mental health prior to her pregnancy and had taken multiple breaks from competition previously, Shai has provided her with something else to focus her energy on, no matter how she has performed on the tennis court.

"Giving birth to my daughter changed my mindset a lot," Osaka told ESPN ahead of her comeback. "And it's also made me realize that my world doesn't have to revolve around me -- which might also be a little selfish too. I guess I've just found outer happiness and inner peace."

According to Mouratoglou, that attitude was on full display when a refreshed and reenergized Osaka came back to Europe to prepare for the ever-so-short grass-court season.

"This part of the season is so important and you really have to be fully focused," Mouratoglou, also the author of the just-released "Champion Mindset" self-help book, said. "If you're thinking about the tournament before, you're not really there. But I think she's really moved on. She's not thinking about Roland Garros at all."

Three weeks after her disappointment in Paris, Osaka was back on the court and playing at the Berlin Open. She lost to eventual semifinalist Liudmila Samsonova in another three-set thriller, but the team was encouraged by what it saw. Wanting to get more match experience on the surface before heading to London, Osaka then accepted a wild card for the Bad Homburg Open. In a tightly contested battle headlined by strong serving by both players, Osaka defeated Olga Danilovic 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) for her first grass-court victory of the season.

"I hope so," Osaka said after the match when asked if she was becoming a good grass-court player. "I mean, I think I have potential, but I don't know. Everyone is also really good, so I can never, I guess, take the wins for granted and [I'm] just super excited that I won today."

Mouratoglou was impressed by her ability to raise her level throughout, hold her serve and handle the break points. She lost 6-4, 6-4 in her match the next day against fifth-seeded Emma Navarro, but the team still deemed the week a success.

And most importantly, Osaka did too.

"She was very positive," Mouratoglou said. "And not fakely positive, because she's not. When she doesn't feel it, she doesn't say it or she would say something negative if she feels negative. So she's not someone who would fake it. But she said to me that she is really happy with how she is playing and that she feels that it's all going to click soon."

Mouratoglou admitted that it's been difficult at times for Osaka. Having been at tennis' peak earlier in her career, she has struggled over the years with her results and knows the expectations others have placed on her. She hasn't advanced past the third round at a major since she won the Australian Open in 2021, nor has she claimed a tour-level title in that span. She is currently ranked No. 53 in the world.

But there have been bright spots -- she reached her first WTA final in almost three years in Auckland this season before having to retire with injury, and she made the fourth round at the 1000-level events in Miami and Rome this year. And Mouratoglou believes Osaka has started to appreciate the journey and her own efforts.

"She's been No. 1 in the world, so to be No. 50 and having to be patient doing everything right, that's what she feels is difficult," Mouratoglou said. "But to be at the top of the game is very difficult, so this is just a [new] difficulty that she needs to accept, but I feel she does. I feel maybe she was not in the past month, but now she says to me, 'It's going to click, I just have to be patient.' And she is sure about it now."

Others have noticed her hard work and have seen flashes of her previous brilliance. After their match in Paris, Badosa praised Osaka's level and said, "Very, very soon she's going to be where she wants to be, for sure."

Evert believes she remains one of the best ball strikers on tour and lauded her hard work and fitness, but she thinks it's simply confidence that Osaka needs most to return to her previous glory.

"I think the No. 1 thing is, and I've watched her play a lot of matches where it's been very close, and she's not won those matches, and I think what she has lost a little bit during the time off was the belief, the belief on the big points, the belief in the big games when it's 5-all," Evert said. "Those shots, those golden shots were there for her taking when she was winning Slams for those couple of years, but that is missing. She can get it back. She can definitely get it back, but she'll need to win some more matches. She'll need to really break through and win these tight, tight matches that she seems to be losing now."

Mouratoglou doesn't disagree. He sees just how good and consistent Osaka can be in practice. and their priority is getting what he sees every single day on the practice court to translate in a match. He believes they are close.

While Osaka has gotten tough first-round opponents in several of her recent Slam appearances due to her lack of seeding, she has a relatively favorable matchup against Gibson, a 21-year-old from Australia playing in her first major main draw outside of her home country. If Osaka wins Monday, she would likely play No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in singles, in the second round. Zheng has won two of their three previous meetings, with both wins coming since Osaka's return, but grass is also Zheng's weakest surface. The winner of their match would not have to face another player seeded inside the top 20 until the quarterfinals.