After exiting Washington in the round-of-16, the former world No. 1 didn’t want to wait at least until the US Open and she instantly fired coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

However, Osaka didn’t want to be alone in Montreal and she reached out to Wiktorowski, who had been out of the Tour since ending his long-time partnership with Iga Swiatek last fall. In their very first tournament together – which was kind of a test to see how their dynamic would look – the Japanese made her first WTA 1000 final since 2022 Miami.

Although Osaka didn’t manage to claim the Montreal title after losing to Victoria Mboko, it doesn’t change the fact that she and Wiktorowski clicked exceptionally. Polish tennis journalist Dominik Senkowski reached out to the 27-year-old’s management and received confirmation that the two would continue with their collaboration.

What Osaka said about Wiktorowski?

Osaka admitted to feeling a bit nervous around Wiktorowski initially because he looked like “a stern” kind of person. But after spending a couple of days with the 44-year-old, she realized that he was actually “a funny” person.

“I think with personality, I was a little nervous because he seems a little stern but he’s actually kind of funny. He’ll randomly say a joke that I wasn’t expecting or something like that. I like him a lot. I know that we’ve only played two matches, but he seems very decisive with what he wants. And I think that that makes it very clear for me,” the Japanese said of her new coach.