Naomi Osaka warms up for Australian Open final with American football

On the eve of her Australian Open final against Petra Kvitova, Naomi Osaka ditched her racket and has been throwing an American football around on the practice courts in Melbourne.The 21-year-old is aiming to win back-to-back Grand Slam titles on Saturday following her US Open win in September.She continued her preparations for her meeting with eighth-seed Kvitova by dropping the racket and picking up the football on Friday. +8 img id="i-c66ce83183fa02f2" height="444" width="634" alt="Naomi Osaka ditched her racket and has been throwing an American football around" class="blkBorder img-share"/ Copy link to paste in your message Naomi Osaka ditched her racket and has been throwing an American football around +8 img id="i-5fd1d6eaf7e0f235" height="459" width="634" alt="The 21-year-old launches the ball to one member of her coaching staff on the practice courts" class="blkBorder img-share"/ Copy link to paste in your message The 21-year-old launches the ball to one member of her coaching staff on the practice courts +8 img id="i-5107d55c17e96b2a" height="435" width="634" alt="Osaka is aiming to win back-to-back Grand Slam titles on Saturday following her US Open win" class="blkBorder img-share"/ Copy link to paste in your message Osaka is aiming to win back-to-back Grand Slam titles on Saturday following her US Open win +8 img id="i-f0d1d487624e473d" height="787" width="634" alt="She looked relaxed as she continued her preparations for her match with eighth-seed Kvitova" class="blkBorder img-share"/ Copy link to paste in your message She looked relaxed as she continued her preparations for her match with eighth-seed Kvitova Share this article Share Pictures show Osaka throwing the ball around with her coaching staff in the blazing Australian heat.She was then given a series of stretching exercises to do to loosen up for the match as famous Australian actor Eric Bana watched on from the side of the court.Osaka will contest her second straight major final on Saturday, becoming the first woman since Jennifer Capriati to follow a maiden title by reaching the final of the next major tournament. Asked why she has seemingly found adjusting to life as a slam winner so straightforward where many others have struggled, Osaka said on Friday: 'I love Grand Slams.'This is a place I think is worth all the training. When you're little, you watch the grand slams, you watch all the players play the legendary matches here.'For me, this is the most important tournament. There's only four of them a year, so of course I want to do the best that I can.' +8 img id="i-e368

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