Naomi Osaka has played in the WTA tournament for the last time in September 2022. Before that, her career was colored by Kohut and the Olympic tournament that ended in disappointment.
Tennis player representing Japan Naomi Osaka25, says the US media for ESPNthat he plans to return to the sport in January at the Australian Open.
The four-time grand slam winner was sidelined this season due to pregnancy, and Shai-daughter was born in July. The new mother tells ESPN that she plans to play in more tournaments next season than in her career before. Osaka’s goal is to make sure he gets enough games while he calmly builds his comeback.
– At least I’m preparing myself for a really good final season, he says.
Osaka has won the Australian Open twice and the US Open twice. She came to the attention of the general public in the summer of 2018, when she became the first Japanese female player ever to win a grand slam final.
At that time, instead of his button success, tennis was the talk of the town Serena Williams and about the loud argument between the match referee during the match and the boos directed at him by the audience.
Osaka continued her top form in the following season, when, for example, she lost only three sets en route to the final at the Australian Open in 2019. In that season, she became the first Asian player to become number one in the world rankings and held the position for 25 weeks.
In 2021, Osaka shook the tennis world at the beginning of the summer when the Japanese star announced that she would boycott the press conferences of the French Open citing mental health reasons. He later withdrew from the tournament.
– It is for the best for the tournament, the other players and my own well-being that I withdraw from the tournament so that everyone can focus on tennis again in Paris, Osaka wrote at the time.
That started a wild, public storm, which even sports people within tennis did not agree on.
In July of the same year, Osaka returned to the Tokyo Olympics, where she lit the Olympic flame and was Japan’s spearhead in tennis.
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However, Japan and Osaka were disappointed when the player was eliminated in the third round of the Olympic tournament.
In September 2021, Osaka played in the US Open, but was eliminated in the third round. In September 2022, she was eliminated in the second round at the WTA 500 in Tokyo. Since then, Osaka has not been seen on the tennis courts and she has reached the 603rd place in the world ranking.