{"id":88086,"date":"2025-08-03T22:28:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=88086"},"modified":"2025-08-03T22:28:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:28:47","slug":"is-tomasz-wiktorowski-the-right-coach-for-naomi-osakas-renaissance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/08\/03\/is-tomasz-wiktorowski-the-right-coach-for-naomi-osakas-renaissance\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Tomasz Wiktorowski the right coach for Naomi Osaka&#8217;s Renaissance?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/07\/27\/naomi-osaka-and-mouratoglou-call-time-on-partnership\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">parting ways with her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou<\/a>, Naomi Osaka announced that she would be working with Tomasz Wiktorowski on a trial basis.<\/p>\n<p>The Polish coach flew to Canada just before the start of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtatennis.com\/tournaments\/canadian-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WTA 1000 in Montreal<\/a> and has been in Osaka&#8217;s box this week. So far, the partnership has already shown promise, as the former World No. 1 reached the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n<p>After a comfortable debut win against local wild card Arsenault, she pulled off a remarkable comeback against Samsonova, saving three match points. She then went on to defeat two Latvians, Jelena Ostapenko and Anastasia Sevastova.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2227189844\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 55.387203% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2227189844?et=hKUu4AG6RtBsopbAUwEKQA&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=TJNK9e4DrfYZ9uH6VQsrz_nFHRFQjtvTVxIJG48GnBU=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"329\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Regardless of how the run ends, this is already Osaka&#8217;s most prestigious result of the year &#8211; alongside the Auckland final &#8211; boosting her chances of being seeded at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usopen.org\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">US Open<\/a>, a tournament she has already won twice.<\/p>\n<h2>Signs of revival<\/h2>\n<p>One might wonder how much of Osaka\u2019s resurgence is truly due to Wiktorowski\u2019s influence. Probably not much at this stage, but a breath of fresh air is often welcome.<\/p>\n<p>For a player like her, who has been struggling for quite some time, change can be a powerful motivator. It\u2019s no secret that Osaka\u2019s 2025 season has been disappointing by her standards and ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a few encouraging wins, she hasn\u2019t been able to perform well in several major tournaments. In the Grand Slams, she reached the third round in both Melbourne and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/07\/21\/wimbledon-expansion-gets-green-light-after-high-court-ruling\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Wimbledon<\/a>, but suffered a first\u2011round exit in Paris. She also never advanced beyond the fourth round in any WTA 1000, prior to this week.<\/p>\n<p>Her press conferences reflected this inconsistency. She looked devastated in Paris, but almost indifferent in London. Then, somewhat unexpectedly, she decided to part ways with Mouratoglou and bring in the very different figure in Wiktorowski.<\/p>\n<h3>Wiktorowski\u2019s credentials<\/h3>\n<p>The Polish coach is no stranger to elite players. He guided Agnieszka Radwa\u0144ska between 2011 and 2018, and later coached <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/07\/16\/polish-pasta-company-to-honor-swiatek\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Iga \u015awi\u0105tek<\/a> from 2022 to 2024. He also worked with Olga Danilovi\u0107 in 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n<p>His stint with Radwa\u0144ska ended with a career\u2011high ranking of World No. 2 and a Wimbledon final, albeit without a Grand Slam title.<\/p>\n<p>His collaboration with \u015awi\u0105tek, however, was far more successful: four Grand Slam trophies, over 100 weeks as World No. 1, and a historic 37\u2011match winning streak &#8211; the longest of the 21st century. His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is impressive and speaks for itself.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2169222697\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 59.76431% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2169222697?et=RZF2N9xKQHRn2jPe2Pdvyg&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=Urpj7Z4xu5uxO8wXRIhBK5GcjHDglSWD4vXIFZvqNUg=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>What lies ahead<\/h3>\n<p>That said, it would be unfair to set expectations too high. Osaka is a very different type of player from the ones Wiktorowski has coached before and currently in a very different phase of her career.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the ingredients are there for a potentially fruitful partnership. Wiktorowski has proven himself among the very best &#8211; he even won the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/04\/02\/paolini-splits-with-furlan-is-wta-coach-of-the-year-a-curse\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">WTA Coach of the Year award<\/a> in 2022. And Osaka, despite her struggles, has consistently shown she has the game to return to the top.<\/p>\n<p>It will take time, and a breakthrough at Flushing Meadows is far from guaranteed. But perhaps &#8211; as her Montreal campaign suggests &#8211; this change is exactly what she needed.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly after parting ways with her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, Naomi Osaka announced that she would be working with Tomasz Wiktorowski on a trial basis. The Polish coach flew to Canada just before the start of the WTA 1000 in Montreal and has been in Osaka&#8217;s box this week. So far, the partnership has already shown [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5454,"featured_media":67642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9,15913,4],"tags":[199,16130,43216,4315,473,7278,476,16592,3940,42572,16576],"class_list":["post-88086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-opinion","category-wta","tag-agnieszka-radwanska","tag-anastasia-sevastova","tag-ariana-arsenault","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-liudmila-samsonova","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-national-bank-open","tag-olga-danilovic","tag-tomasz-wiktorowski","tag-wta-montreal"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88086"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88106,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88086\/revisions\/88106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}