Naomi Osaka looks up to Rafael Nadal as she reveals a new…

MADRID, Spain — Naomi Osaka has a few new tricks up her sleeve. The former No.1 has been training in Mallorca and hopes that a few new additions to her game will yield a clay breakthrough as she starts her clay season this week at the Mutua Madrid Open.

“Actually yes, I changed a couple of things,” Osaka told reporters at Media Day in Madrid. “I think you guys will be able to tell when I play. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I would say I did change a couple of things to suit myself more for clay.

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After making the Miami Open final last month, Osaka took two weeks off before heading to Europe to begin her clay preparations.

“I’m trying to embrace my mistakes compared to the previous years as well, so I’m not that hard on myself,” she said. “If I make a mistake or if I don’t move up to the ball fast enough – because I find on clay you actually have to move much more – but if I do stuff like that I just tell myself not to be mad. I’m still a student so I should try to keep learning.

Naomi Osaka looks up to Rafael Nadal as she reveals a new…

“So I’m really excited to play my first match.”

Most notably, Osaka revealed she might even try to incorporate some things she’s learned from watching Rafael Nadal over the years on clay.

“I think I stole one of the things that he did and I’ve been practicing it recently,” Osaka said. “It’ll either go really good or really bad. There’s like no in between. But I think as I’ve been doing it, it’s been going pretty well.

“Honestly I’ve been wanting to watch the really good clay-court players practice because I feel like I’m the type of person that learns really fast if I see it up close, and honestly it’s a bit of a waste to have all these really good professional tennis players and not watch them. I’ve kind of wanted to see [Carlos] Alcaraz, so it’d be cool to watch everyone practice.”