Naomi Osaka was once the player everyone had their eyes on. A four-time Grand Slam champion, her 2018 US Open win made special history, as she became the first Japanese player ever to claim a Grand Slam. But everything shifted in 2023, when Osaka welcomed her first child, Shai. Now, as she works to regain her form, it seems like that year could have turned it all around!

The Japanese player hasn’t had the best season so far. After coming back from her maternity leave in January 2024, she’s been eyeing her next title. Although she won a WTA 125K event title in Saint Malo earlier in May, she hasn’t secured a major win yet. She knew being a tennis mom wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

Speaking to People Magazine, she made a major revelation about having preconceived notions as a tennis mom “I was one of those people that thought when I had a kid I would stop playing tennis,” She also revealed the stress of returning during her maternity leave weighed on her. Perhaps enough to make a big decision: “I feel like in the back of my head, I was a little stressed, of course, because I really desperately wanted to play and I felt like I had to do whatever it took,” she said, “And that’s kind of my, I guess, stubbornness.”

And that’s definitely something Naomi Osaka has proven on the court. She’s stubborn to the bone when it comes to giving her all against opponents. This season, she’s reached the finals of two tournaments—in Adelaide, where she was forced to withdraw due to an abdominal injury, and this month at the Canadian Open. Despite the lack of titles, she’s still optimistic. Even glad she didn’t follow through with her anxious thoughts back in 2023.

“But also I’ve been training since I was a really young kid, so it didn’t feel that extreme to me,” she admitted, “I feel like I’m going to look back on it and think it’s a little crazy — but in that moment, it didn’t seem as wild as it does now.”

But has retirement really left her mind? Not quite. The four-time Slam champion has mentioned on a few occasions that she might reconsider her career, especially after facing multiple early exits from Slams this year, but she’s pushing through. Why?

Well, her daughter is the reason. As she said back in 2023, post-delivery, “I’ve never been a person that’s really good at playing for myself, if that makes sense. So I kind of like the feeling of having the responsibility of having to take care of Shai and wanting to show her around the world.” While she’s yet to reach her previous peak, she’s positive she can.

Going into the US Open this year, after coming back from a loss that left her speechless, won’t be easy. But she’s earned some words of wisdom from her father that might just push her through!

Naomi Osaka Finds Solace in Looking Back at Her Career

This year, Naomi’s grass-court troubles continued with a third-round loss at Wimbledon against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She took a set but fell in three. After the match, Osaka was brutally honest: “I’m just going to be a negative human being today. I’m so sorry. I have nothing positive to say about myself, which is something I’m working on.” This followed a first-round defeat at Roland Garros weeks earlier. Those back-to-back setbacks on tennis’s biggest stages left her reflecting deeply after a heartfelt talk with her father, Leonard Francois.

She shared, “He had told me how at 59 years old he feels closer to the end of his life than the beginning, and it’s made him want to enjoy and treasure the years he has left. He told me he finds this interesting because he thinks my tennis career is potentially similar.” At first, 27-year-old Osaka said, it didn’t make sense. But after some thought, it hit home. Tennis has been her world since age 16.

Osaka’s breakthrough came at the 2018 US Open, where she beat her idol Serena Williams in a widely watched final. She followed that with a 2019 Australian Open win over Petra Kvitova. Those back-to-back majors propelled her to world No. 1 on January 28, 2019—the first Asian player to hold that spot. She dominated hard courts further, winning the US Open again in 2020 and the Australian Open in 2021. Winning her first four Grand Slam finals put her alongside legends Monica Seles and Roger Federer in the Open Era.

“After a couple days, a realization suddenly hit me. I’ve been playing tennis since I was 3, playing professionally since I was 14, and I’m 27 now. I’ve lived almost my entire life playing this sport, and I guess it’s true, I am closer to the end than the beginning,” she added.

Now, as she gears up for the US Open starting August 24, all eyes are on her. She recently wrapped up mixed doubles with Gael Monfils after a first-round loss, but she enters singles as the 23rd seed. Set to face Greet Minnen on Friday, fans are wondering: can she make another deep run like in 2018 and 2020? Share your thoughts in the comments below!