Japanese Tennis star Naomi Osaka has announced her pregnancy.
The four-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one, Naomi Osaka, 25, will not play in the Australian Open, she has not played since September.
“2023 will be a year that’ll be full of lessons for me,” said Osaka. She also hopes of returning in 2024.
“One thing I am looking forward to is for my kid to watch one of my matches and tell someone, ‘that’s my mom’,” read a note she posted on her official Twitter handle which also featured a picture of her womb from the hospital.
Can’t wait to get back on the court but here’s a little life update for 2023. pic.twitter.com/GYXRnutU3I
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) January 11, 2023
Osaka’s last Grand Slam win, out of her four, was bagged at the Australian Open in 2021. However, after her last title she came out with problems she faced since then.
After she withdrew frpm the French Open in May 2021, she opened up about “suffering long bouts of depression” since she won her first big title, the US Open in 2018.
She even took a five-month break from tennis in September 2021.
Upon her return, she was defeated in the third round of the Australian Open, the first round of the French Open, Wimbledon was missed due to injury, and she was defeated in the first round of the US Open.
Osaka last played at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September 2022 and now ranks at 47 in the world rankings.
Apart from the four Grand Slam singles titles she also also won at the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021 and the US Open in 2018 and 2020.
Forbes Magazine named her world’s highest earning female athlete in 2022 with earnings, reportedly, of $51.1 million.
In her post, announcing her pregnancy, she has acknowledge the challenges she faced in the last few years and according to Osaka, her recent absence from the sport has blossomed more love for the game for her.
“I realise that life is so short and I don’t take any moments for granted, every day is a new blessing and adventure.I know I have so much to look forward to in the future” she wrote.
Osaka is not the only sportswoman to take a break due to pregnancy, Angelique Kerber, a three-time Grand Slam champion from Germany, also announced her pregnancy in August last year and even said that she will play after giving birth. Another star, Elina Svitolina, a former number three player, might return to the sport this year after becoming a mother to a daughter in October last year.
Tennis star Serena Williams also took a break to give birth in 2017 and came back to play later the same year, and continued since then until her retirement in 2022.
