Knock knock jokes, Pokemon and 'the worst acceptance speech of all time' - introducing the future of women's tennis Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka had just won her first WTA title on Sunday, and was understandably finding it hard to put the achievement into words. She giggled, fidgeted and rambled, before admitting "this is probably going to be the worst acceptance speech of all time".

The Indian Wells crowd laughed, and fell in love with Osaka just a little bit more. Because over the previous two weeks, they - and the wider tennis world - have been given an introductory seminar into the weird and wonderful world of Naomi Osaka.

Not only did Osaka, 20, beat the current world No 1 and two former incumbents, as well as a former No 2, to claim her maiden title - the biggest event outside of the grand slams - she smiled and quipped her way through the tournament as if she was playing a game of bat and ball in her back garden. 

Osaka is in lots of ways a little different. In fact in a world of cliches and platitudes, she is to tennis as Donald Trump is to diplomacy. Unfiltered, unabashed and unique, Osaka speaks with a child-like wonder where the word "like" is never more than a couple of sentences away. Apologies if this is a very dated reference, but the cadence and rhythm of Osaka's voice makes her sound like Alyson Hannigan's character Michelle in the American Pie films. 

As an illustration of Osaka's quirkiness, take this response to a press conference question two years ago about her career ambitions. “To be the very best, like no one ever was,” Osaka said, before smiling expectantly. 

After realising that no-one was on her wavelength, she added: "That’s a Pokémon quote, I’m sorry. That’s the Pokémon theme song. But, yeah, to be the very best, and go as far as I can go."

By becoming the youngest Indian Wells winner in a decade and after reaching a career high ranking of No 22, one could be forgiven for viewing Osaka as an overnight success. The reality though is she has been talked about for some time, partly because of her intriguing heritage. The daughter of a Japanese mother and Haitian father, Osaka was born in Japan but moved to the US at the age of three. She grew up in Florida and still lives and trains there. 

Osaka is proud of her Haitian and American heritage but plays under the Japanese flag despite not being able to speak the language. This has made for some amusing press conferences where the Japanese media has tried and failed to understand her off-beat humour in a language they are not entirely familiar with. 

"For us, it’s really tough to get to know her personality," Japanese reporter Aki Uchida told The New York Times in 2016. "Even in English, she keeps making some random jokes. She keeps making some jokes which we don’t understand. It’s tricky. We don’t know if it’s from different cultures, her personality, or could be generation gaps." 

In fairness to Uchida even some English-speaking journalists have been a little bewildered by Osaka's curious brand of Pokemon quotes and knock-knock jokes. 

Osaka for her part says of trying to understand Japanese: "It’s really fast; sometimes it sounds like they’re rapping, so then I’m just like: I didn’t hear the first part of the question. Then I look like an idiot, and I don’t want to look like an idiot."

Such is Osaka's playfulness off the court that it's easy to to lose sight of her considerable talent. Osaka possesses a devastatingly powerful game, built around a potent serve that has clocked 125mph and a forehand that flies through the air at speeds of more than 100mph. 

While still in her teens, Osaka reached a Tour final, cracked the world's top 50 aged and won the WTA's newcomer of the year award for 2016. She continued to improve last year, and thumped the reigning champion Angelique Kerber 6–3, 6–1 in the US Open first round.

Then at the end of 2017, Osaka teamed up with coach Sascha Bajin, who has previously worked with Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, and most recently Caroline Wozniacki. Bajin has worked specifically on improving Osaka's movement and backhand, and the partnership has paid immediate dividends. 

In January, Osaka reached her first grand slam fourth round at the Australian Open - though in typically self-effacing style she felt compelled to apologise to the Melbourne crowd after getting there. 

Naomi Osaka on trying to understand Japanese

"I feel really happy, but also kind of sorry because I know you guys really wanted her [Australian Ashleigh Barty] to win," Osaka said sheepishly. 

Osaka's improvement has not gone unnoticed by her competitors. Serena Williams said of the youngster: "She’s really young and really aggressive. She’s a really good, talented player. Very dangerous."

Osaka, who is drawn to face Williams in the Miami first round this week, has admitted to being so star struck by the American that she has pretended to be on her phone in front of her. On one occasion, Osaka joked that she started hugging the wall to try and be invisible when Williams entered the locker room.

After being brutalised by Osaka on Sunday, fellow 20-year-old Kasatkina said: "She’s really very powerful, serving good, doesn’t have weaknesses."

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Given the way Osaka struck her backhand - traditionally a weakness - in California, it was hard to disagree with Kasatkina's assessment. To beat the in-form Kasatkina so comfortably, as well as Simona Halep, Maria Sharapova, Karolina Pliskova and Agnieszka Radwanska in the previous rounds without dropping a set, you have to be playing close to flawless tennis. 

Next up for Osaka is that Miami first round against Williams where she will have to put her fandom aside for a couple of hours to maintain her recent momentum. To avoid feeling too starstruck, she might have to repeat her tactic against Kasatkina, which was to "like, fake that I’m very calm." 

Whatever the result against Williams, the absence of an obvious leading player presents a big opportunity to Osaka and the other youngsters on the WTA Tour to make a major breakthrough - just look at Jelena Ostapenko last year. 

And if Osaka keeps improving it surely won't be long before she gets a chance to improve on "the worst acceptance speech of all time".