By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday 20 August 2024
Since then Naomi Osaka began her return from maternity leave in January in Australia, this year’s Australian Open is marked on her calendar. The four-time major champion made her first major breakthrough at Flushing Meadows in 2018, and repeated the feat in 2020.
Now 26, and having just celebrated her baby daughter Shai’s first birthday, Osaka is now firmly back in the Top 100 and ready to take her place in the US Open draw as a wild card.
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True to her lofty expectations, it hasn’t been a comeback for Osaka – yet – in 2024. She’s yet to reach a semifinal on the tour in the 16 events she’s played and has yet to earn a Top-10 win. But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t made progress.
Ranked outside the Top 800 in January, the four-time major champion now finds herself at 85. She has won 18 matches on tour, but the loss at Roland-Garros to eventual champion Iga Swiatek is the match that made most observers stand up. and consider the fact that Osaka can still be influential – and elite – on the tour.
Asked about Osaka’s future today during ESPN’s conference call to promote US Open coverage, 18-time major champion Chris Evert says she is concerned about recent comments Osaka made in a social media post after her loss last to Ashlyn Krueger in the qualifiers in Cincinnati.
In it Osaka said: “I don’t feel like I’m in my body. It’s a weird feeling, missing balls I shouldn’t be missing, hitting balls softer than I used to.”
“That last statement she has has me a little worried,” Evert said. “She said, my biggest problem right now is that I don’t feel like I’m in my body. She said, it scares me. My racket should feel like an extension of my hand, but it’s not. I’m missing balls I shouldn’t be missing.
“She is going through some doubtful moments. We’ll see if she can pull off that magic, because it’s the US Open. She has won this title several times, so let’s see if she can work that magic. I think her story, her journey, remains to be seen.”
Evert believes Osaka has the talent to return to the top of the sport, but doubts the untouchables are there.
It can be tricky for a player like Osaka, who is stressing the importance of having balance and mental health in her life. She doesn’t see life the way she did when she was young, but she would like to play the same kind of tennis.
“I know she has the game, but it takes more than the game,” she said. “It takes a lot of confidence and it takes a lot of focus. We will see. She’s in a different part of her life now where she seems to be so at ease and she’s so relaxed and happy and at ease. Mental problems haven’t really affected him. She has a child whom she loves madly. Sometimes when you’re very happy, that can’t always be good either, I don’t know, for us to be intense and wild. We will see. I hope she’s okay though.”
Osaka’s performance against Swiatek was a positive step and showed how she is up to the challenge of facing a top player. In that match, Osaka rekindled her old magic and proved that not only can she play at Swiatek’s level, but she can do it against the Pole on her best surface.
“The fact that she got to match point against Swiatek at the French Open was pretty amazing,” she said. “That was the best I’ve ever seen him play on clay courts. Now she can be a field player, she knows she can play in the mud. After that, she left again.”
John McEnroe, also at the conference, says Osaka’s success depends on her head. The talent, no doubt, is there.
“She has talent,” he said. “It’s about what Chrissie said, where her head is at, how deep she’s willing to dig, enjoying the competition. This part is the key. The game is there, but she needs to find it in order to win another big one. Can she? I think she can. Like Chrissie said, I don’t know if he will. It depends on whether she is able to use it or not.”
