Naomi Osaka has high ambitions regarding her tennis comeback, but she's also realistic about her expectations.
Osaka poked at herself after the Australian Open by admitting that she thought she could win it. Obviously, that was a bit too much as the reality ended up being an early exit at the hands of Caroline Garcia, who admittedly is a pretty good tennis player, so the draw was not kind in that regard.
The more important point was Osaka realizing that the comeback wouldn't be as smooth as she thought. She kind of knew that already, but it got even more real when her dreams got shattered in front of her.
Balancing the expectations is something she's still learning to deal with.
"That’s something I’m still learning to deal with. In Australia it was really tough. I think that would be the main reason why I was so upset. But I think now I’m doing better and I’m learning you can’t win every week, and you can’t really control certain things."
One thing about Osaka's comeback that she talked about often is making her daughter proud. It motivates her to put together a worthy comeback, and she hopes her daughter will appreciate her efforts. She confirmed to The National that she's giving it her all.
"You can only control how much work you put in. For me, regardless of the outcome, I think Shai will know – well she won’t know now, she’s just doing her own thing, but she’ll know that I tried my best and the only intent was for her life to be better."
We'll see how it works out for her and whether things improve at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Open compared to the Australian Open. She has a really tough draw with Danielle Collins in the first round and potentially Elena Rybakina in the second.
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