“If I really want one thing, it’s for my child to watch one of my matches and then say to someone: It’s my mother.” This is how Naomie Osaka announced, photo of an ultrasound in support. “2023 is going to be a year full of lessons for me and I hope to see you again at the start of the next one since I will be there at the Australian Open 2024”, continues the 25-year-old Japanese player. The ex-world number 1 has already won twice in Melbourne and had just announced his withdrawal for the 2023 edition on Sunday.
“I realize that life is short and I don’t take anything for granted. Every day is a blessing and an adventure. These months spent away from sport have strengthened my love for this sport to which I have dedicated my life., assures Osaka in its announcement. A four-time Grand Slam winner, Osaka has not played a competitive match since withdrawing from the Tokyo tournament in September due to abdominal pain.
She also opened up about her mental health issues and has spent all of 2022 out of the Top 10, suffering first-round defeats at Roland Garros and the US Open. In 2021, the Japanese champion made headlines by retiring from Roland-Garros after announcing that she would not give a press conference in order to preserve her mental health.
Because after a lightning ascent, the queen of tennis with a shy personality had until then masked her weaknesses. Already venerated in Japan, her country of birth in the city that bears her name, she had ended up becoming a muse throughout the world, the highest paid sportswoman in the world and had become a spokesperson for the movement against racism in 2020. Overexposure is hard to bear.
Mothers and champions
Other champions of the yellow ball before Osaka have put their careers on hold, such as the Australian Margaret Court, holder of the absolute record for Grand Slam titles (24), who had achieved a “small Slam” in 1973 (three lifts of the Grand Slam out of four) after returning from a first maternity ward.
In 2009, Belgian Kim Clijsters won the US Open just eighteen months after giving birth. She then won two more, the 2010 US Open and the 2011 Australian Open, before putting an end to her career for good.