Naomi Osaka: Britain's Katie Boulter says the four-time Grand Slam winner is an inspiration to her

ByEurosport

Published 08/03/2021 at 14:03 GMT

Naomi Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam winner aged just 23. She emphatically won the 2021 Australian Open and has been predicted by Eurosport tennis expert Mats Wilander to win plenty more slams in her already-decorated career. Britain's Katie Boulter says the world number two is a source of inspiration for her on and off the court.

Britain's Katie Boulter says Naomi Osaka is one of her great inspirations as a tennis player.

The two faced each other in the Gippsland Trophy at the start of February ahead of this year's Australian Open. Boulter took the Japanese player to three sets, but fell 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to the winner of this year's Melbourne Slam.

Boulter has praised Osaka's "graciousness" on the court and is a huge fan of her work off it.

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"I'd personally say she's really shown her strength of character through a lot of the stuff that she's done on and off the court," the 24-year-old told the LTA's YouTube channel.

"She's used her voice in the most powerful way possible and I think she's an extremely amazing person.

"To be able to do that, and especially from such a young age as well, it's seriously impressive to see that.

"She's really young. I think the way she carries herself on and off the court is something that a lot of people can look up to and try and be like because it's definitely what I model myself on.

The graciousness on and off the court is very important and I think she's done a tremendous job at that.

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Elsewhere, LTA women's national coach and former British number one Katie O'Brien says nine-time Grand Slam singles title winner Monica Seles is one of her idols.

"My earliest sporting memories probably date back to 1992 and in that year Monica Seles and Steffi Graf were the two women at the top of the game then.

"I do remember them playing the Wimbledon final that year and it was just the fact that Seles was just so tenacious, so gritty. She was really aggressive.

I thought it was incredible how she came back from that horrible stabbing incident. She overcame adversity and came back onto the Tour and actually did incredibly well when she came back.

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