Underrated Traits of the Greats: Naomi Osaka's return of serve

Welcome to Underrated Week! From May 4 through 8, TENNIS.com is focusing on the most overlooked aspects of the sport, from stats to achievements to tactics, and beyond. We're also featuring 10 players because of something they do extremely well, but which isn't their signature quality. It's a series we're calling the Underrated Traits of the Greats.

Tennis players apply pressure to their opponents in many ways. As a junior, it’s often simply a matter of consistency. Then come other factors, be it pace, spin, court positioning, the deployment of a singular weapon. Or, if you happen to be Roger Federer, all of the above.

But no two shots best dictate the ebb and flow of a point than the serve and the return—they each commencing the action in their own way. This is particularly true among the pros. When it comes to the serve, contemporary greats are surely Federer and Serena Williams.

As for today’s returners, let’s explore a much younger and less-examined champion, Naomi Osaka. The underrated aspect of Osaka’s return is its cumulative impact, akin to a baseball player a pitcher fears is frequently capable of hitting a home run off a weak pitch.

Big-time pace has long been an Osaka cornerstone. In 2014, ranked 406th in the world, the 16-year-old Osaka fought off a match point to beat 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur at a WTA event at Stanford. Sports Illustrated writer Courtney Nguyen called it, “a precocious display of power tennis.” At the end of 2017, Osaka was ranked 68th in the world; touted, but still raw.

Starting in March 2018, there came ten amazing months, Osaka a flame-throwing, swift-moving hunter. At Indian Wells, she won her first WTA singles title. In September came the US Open crown, followed in January 2019 by victory at the Australian Open. In the wake of that Australian Open run, Osaka had become world No. 1, her success fueled most of all by punishing, flat, hard deep groundstrokes.

Consider the velocity of the Osaka service return an allegoric expression of her comet-like rise. In the spirit of Andre Agassi and Monica Seles, Osaka was trained to return serve aggressively. You may think she is merely flailing or throwing caution to the wind. Or, to use a slang term, she appears to be “going for it.”

Think again. If a tennis player practices enough, sharpens her technique and learns to replicate it under pressure, this degree of self-belief and display of power is no different than a basketball player like Steph Curry confidently throwing up a 30-footer or quarterback Patrick Mahomes launching a 60-yard missile. It’s not risky if you own it.

A picture forms of various Osaka hitting partners, each year standing closer and closer inside the baseline, firing one serve after another, as her father, Leonard Francois, encourages his daughter to take a big cut at the ball. This is what effective and extensive training is all about: commitment to the swing and the process, not concerned about the outcome. So perhaps the underrated aspect of the Japanese star’s return is her work ethic and how extensively she’s practiced this shot to make it so darn powerful.

The sound of a rifle? More like a cannon. Osaka at her best is willing to treat meek serves for what they are: short balls, landing inside the service line, begging not just to be directed, but to be punished. An emphatic Osaka return is flat, hard, deep—often untouchable.

Returning this way does a lot more than earn Osaka a single point. To toss in a second serve versus her and have it struck for a winner is a harsh awakening. The Osaka return puts the server on red alert, which in turn creates yet more pressure on the first serve. Go big on the first? But if you miss, now time for the treacherous second. Her return will give any weak server nightmares and likely increase the double-fault rate. Relaxed and free were the watchwords that made Osaka's ascent so captivating.

Yet by this January, with the speed of a science-fiction tale, Osaka had become the hunted. This in turn affected her well-trained, forceful return. Only a few months earlier, at the US Open, she’d dispatched 15-year-old Coco Gauff, 6-3, 6-0. Moments after that match had ended, Osaka had taken on the role of gracious older sister when she’d kindly suggested the two each address the crowd. No longer was Osaka tennis’ latest precocious prodigy.

At January’s Australian Open, Gauff grabbed the mantle, upsetting Osaka, 6-3, 6-4. Though Gauff served well at times, Osaka was likely all too aware of what was at stake and quite often returned tentatively, rarely pressing Gauff.

“I was more nervous today, because I have already beaten her once before,” said Osaka.

Call that an outcome-focused statement, far removed from those Florida practice sessions when Osaka demonstrated the longstanding tennis principle her father knew intuitively: the ball doesn’t know your ranking, how old you are, what the score is, how many titles you’ve won. Once Osaka is back on the courts, it will be fascinating to see how she attempts to put that concept in action yet again. Servers beware.

UNDERRATED TRAITS OF THE GREATS: Roger Federer—Winning ugly | Simona Halep—Boldness | Rafael Nadal—When to come to net | Sofia Kenin—Variety | Pete Sampras—Movement | Serena Williams—Plan B | Novak Djokovic—Forehand versatility | Chris Evert—Athleticism | Daniil Medvedev—Reading the room | Naomi Osaka—Return of serve

RANKINGS: The five most underrated tennis stats | The five most underrated No. 1s | The five most underrated Grand Slam runs

YOUR GAME: Why mental strength is underrated | Five underrated tennis tactics