By Tony Fairbairn at Wimbledon
- Yuriko Lily Miyazaki is hoping to work on her consistency in the future as she spoke about the benefits of playing on the ITF tour.
LONDON, ENGLAND – Yuriko Lily Miyazaki spoke about playing on the ITF tour and working on her consistency ahead of her opening round match at Wimbledon.
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Yuriko Lily Miyazaki is one of 19 British singles players playing at Wimbledon this week and the wildcard has been through an up and down time over the last year.
The ups have included qualifying for the US Open in August last year where she eventually lost in the second round to Belinda Bencic as well as winning an ITF event in France in March.
However there have been a lot of downs as well with Miyazaki struggling for form as Miyazaki has only won three matches since winning that title in March.
Ahead of Wimbledon, Britwatch Sports asked her about the benefits of competing on the ITF circuit and also asked her about some of the challenges of being a more consistent player.
“Yeah playing the ITF tournaments definitely helps because you can play a lot of matches and that definitely helps your game,” Miyazaki told us in her pre-tournament press conference.
“I also think the depth is really good in women’s tennis now because even if your playing girls that are ranked a bit lower than it definitely helps your game. Yeah playing the ITF tournaments has been good for my game for my ranking and for my tennis in general as well.
“Yeah consistency is a big one (challenge) because if I have a bit of a bad day I need to be able to get through those a little bit better because I need to deal better with the days that are not going my way.”
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Miyazaki’s mental focus key to US Open success
As mentioned, one of the big highs for Miyazaki was her qualification for the US Open where she won four matches in order to reach the second round.
The world number 148 spoke about her mental presence being a key to success in New York as she spoke about not getting carried away with results.
“Yeah I think at US Open when I had good run I think mentally I was really able to stay present and not get carried away with results and things,” Miyazaki told Britwatch Sports.
“I was more focused on my level out there and I believe my level is good enough to compete with these players. Yeah since then my results have been a bit up and down sometimes but ultimately again I believe my level is there, so it’s about mentally getting it together. Yeah let’s just see how it goes this week and next week.”
Miyazaki will hope to gain at least one win at Wimbledon when she takes on Tamara Korpatsch in her opening round match.
Although it’s a winnable first match, Miyazaki is missing the big court atmosphere that maybe some of the other Brits will experience in the opening round.
So we asked Miyazaki whether she would prefer a winnable opening round or a big match on a big court that she would remember for the rest of her career and this is what she responded with.
“I guess at this level no match is going to be easy but I think for me maybe for the first one have a match that I can build into it would be nice but you never know what’s going to happen,” Miyazaki told Britwatch Sports.
“But I think playing here at Wimbledon is so special so any draw is fine for me.”
Miyazaki will play her opening round match on Monday, third on Court 16.
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