Naomi Osaka is back to tennis, but things are very different compared to before because she's actually a mother now.
Time flies, and things change rapidly in life, which was the case for Osaka. Motherhood has made a hugely positive impact on her life, and she's quite enjoyed it, which is great to hear.
It also inspired her to get back to tennis because she wants to show her daughter what her mom does and make her proud. Her most recent level in Doha has been pretty good, so she's trending in the right direction, but there are plenty of things to learn and improve in her new life.
Scheduling is the most significant thing, as she doesn't want to sacrifice time with her daughter too much in favour of tennis, which she kind of did so far with the comeback, and the four-time Grand Slam champion spoke about it at the 2024 Qatar Open.
"Yeah, so left Melbourne a day after I lost my match and went back to see my daughter. I honestly didn't really talk to anyone during that time."
"It was just kind of, for me, the longest that I have been away from her, so I just wanted to hang out with her a lot. I guess seeing her reinforced my goal to, like, do better at every tournament."
Osaka opted against bringing her daughter to Australia because she felt the trip would have been too hard on the baby. She does plan on bringing her daughter to many events in the future and will bring her to Indian Wells and Miami, though not to the tennis courts, of course.
"Of course I think Abu Dhabi wasn't the greatest (smiling), but I really want to bring her to as many tournaments as I can. So she's coming to Indian Wells and Miami."
"You won't see her, though, because I guess she'll just be at the house, but I think I do need to be a lot smarter with my scheduling, because I really want to make time for her and I don't want her to not have me in her memories."
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