Former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka has been granted a wildcard into the Madrid Masters.
Osaka, 24, hasn’t played in any clay tournaments so far but will make her clay season debut in early April in the Spanish capital.
Osaka, now ranked at No. 35 in the world, is set to make her fourth Madrid appearance.
Osaka suffered a first round defeat in her 2018 Madrid debut but a year later reached the quarterfinal at the tournament.
Last year, Osaka was beaten in the Madrid second round.
Osaka plans to learn from Rafael Nadal
Osaka is hoping to make some strong results this clay season and she is hoping to learn a thing or two from studying Nadal’s game on clay.
“I’m going to watch a lot of Nadal videos to see how he moves,” Osaka said after Miami.
“Shout out, [Carlos] Alcaraz, because he’s killing it. “I just think that knowing I’m still a student and I have to keep learning, clay and grass is something I really want to tackle this year. So I’m willing kind of to do whatever it takes to get good results.
“Not that results are everything, but I really want to do well.”
Osaka, who was recently ranked at No. 80, improved to No. 35 following her Miami run.
Osaka is hoping to return to the No. 1 ranking and the clay season is a perfect opportunity to earn some points since she doesn’t have much points to defend this clay season.
“I think by next year or by the end of this year, I would love to be Top 10,” Osaka said after finishing runner-up in Miami. “By next year I would love to be the No.1. “Oh, that’s a big statement. Erase that. Top 5. You know what? I’m going to set that goal. Top 1, yeah. No.1.”