For Naomi Osaka, her most important role isn’t that of a tennis player; it’s being a mother. The four-time Grand Slam champion has often spoken about how her three-year-old daughter, Shai, inspires her to keep pushing herself on and off the court. So when Osaka was recently asked whether she could see Shai following in her footsteps as a professional tennis player, the Japanese star had a clear and heartfelt response.

The former world No. 1, Naomi Osaka, has given her verdict about her daughter’s relationship with the sport. Speaking at a press conference ahead of her Citi Open campaign, the Japanese stated, “Well, she knows I play tennis. I don’t tell her it’s, like, a professional job or anything, but she knows that’s what I do for work,” Osaka said. “She has, like, a mini Yonex tennis racquet that she swings around, but she’s actually never gone on the court and played.” 

Osaka further confessed that she won’t force her daughter to take up the sport. “I don’t think I’d encourage it other than for her to get exercise because I feel like there’s so many things that she’s good at and so many things that she wants to explore. So, yeah, I’ll see what happens in the future,” she said. 

Although Shai often accompanies her mother to practice sessions and swings her mini racket, Osaka has made it clear that she would never push her daughter toward tennis unless that’s what Shai genuinely wants. For Osaka, however, the driving force behind her tennis career is her daughter, who continues to inspire her to become the best version of herself both on and off the court.

The four-time Grand Slam champion has often described the three-year-old as her biggest source of motivation. “My daughter is a source of motivation; she’s always on my mind,” Osaka once said.

Life on tour, however, often means spending time away from her family, something Osaka admits can be difficult. She has spoken openly about questioning whether she’s handling that balance the right way. Even so, the Japanese star believes Shai remains her “ultimate motivator” to keep striving for greatness. When she returned to the world’s top 20 last year, Osaka credited much of that achievement to the inspiration she draws from her daughter.

Since returning from maternity leave, Osaka’s form first turned a corner during last year’s North American hard-court swing, reaching the final of the Canadian Open in her very first event working with new coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. She lost to Victoria Mboko in the final and then followed it up with a US Open semi-final, her deepest run into a major since her 2021 Australian Open title.  

She has followed that form right through this season, with her best-ever Grand Slam result at the French Open and Wimbledon. The Japanese star advanced to the fourth round in Paris before making it to the quarter-finals at the All England Club, where she dispatched world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. 

Asked what specifically had improved in her game to fuel that run, Osaka pointed to technical growth rather than simply better luck. “I think on this season in grass I’ve learned a lot more about my serve. I think I’ve also gotten a lot more comfortable going to the net. So moving forward and just being a little bit more aggressive, I think that’s for me what I did really well in Wimbledon,” she said.

Naomi Osaka to play mixed doubles event at the US Open with Kei Nishikori

Last year, Naomi Osaka played mixed doubles for the first time at a major in the US Open’s reimagined format. She had partnered with Gael Monfils and lost in the first round in straight sets against Caty McNally and Lorenzo Musetti. This year, she is partnering up with her compatriot, Kei Nishikori, a Japanese veteran who is ending his career at the season’s end. With their combined singles ranking, the duo has directly made their place in the main draw. 

When asked what Nishikori’s announcement of retirement at the end of the season meant to Osaka, she said he was someone who helped form her own identity as a tennis player long before they were teammates. 

“He’s kind of, I don’t want to say, carried us on his back for so long, but he has represented Japan at the highest level for an amazingly long period of time,” Osaka said. She described their relationship in careful, respectful terms rather than simple friendship. “I feel like I respect Kei too much to say he’s my friend. He’s someone I’ve looked up to for so long,” she added. 

Osaka also revealed the specific parts of his game she had studied growing up. “What I studied from him is the backhand and the return. Obviously I need to study more. But yeah, those are the things that I admired the most. Then obviously that he never got angry or things like that.” 

The country has always wanted them to represent the nation at the Olympics as the dream pair for Japan. Osaka won her first Grand Slam at the US Open in 2018, and Kei Nishikori’s best Grand Slam appearance also came at the very tournament in 2014, when he reached the final.