Japan’s Naomi Osaka returns the ball to China’s Zheng Qinwen during her match at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome, Monday, May 13, 2024. Qinwen won 6-2, 6-4.
15:24 JST, May 26, 2024
PARIS (AP) — The big news in Naomi Osaka’s life has nothing to do with the French Open or clay tennis: Her 10-month-old daughter, Shai, is taking her first steps.
“Yesterday she ran for the first time, so I was very happy with that,” Osaka said on Saturday at Roland Garros, a day before the tournament starts. ‘When I get back, we’ll practice some more. But it’s really cool to have her here, just to see how much she’s grown and how many things she does differently. It’s a bit surreal.”
As any parent knows, keeping your distance from children while you’re on the road for work isn’t easy. Especially when the child is as small as Shai: she will be 1 year old in July.
“I mean, it was really hard to be away from her, but I called her every day,” said Osaka, a former No. 1 player and four-time Grand Slam champion. “I saw how well she was doing and I saw how happy she was, so that made me happy too.”
The European clay circuit started for Osaka over a month ago in Rouen, France, and then took her to Madrid and Rome. She lost her opener in Rouen and her second match in Madrid.
But it was at the Italian Open that Osaka showed signs that she has made serious progress on the slow, red surface that is not necessarily kind to her powerful shots because it slows down the balls. She had never won a match on clay against a top 20 player until she did so twice there, edging past Marta Kostyuk and Daria Kasatkina on her way to the fourth round.
“I’ve made a significant amount of progress and I feel like people can see that in the tournaments I’ve played,” Osaka said. “I feel like I spent a lot of time learning about clay.”
Her most important titles came in 2018-2021 and all on hard courts, two apiece at the US Open and the Australian Open. She still has to get further than the third round in Paris or on grass at Wimbledon.
Repeated questions about difficulties on clay contributed to the anxiety and depression Osaka spoke of as she refused to take part in press conferences at the 2021 French Open before withdrawing from the event. That was followed by a series of mental health breaks.
She took more time off while pregnant, before returning to Grand Slam action at the Australian Open in January with a first-round loss.
If Osaka can get past her opening match against Lucia Bronzetti on Sunday at Court Philippe Chatrier, next up could be what amounts to the toughest task of the moment in women’s tennis: taking on No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the second round.
Swiatek is aiming for a third consecutive trophy at Roland Garros.
Osaka isn’t quite on the clay yet, but says she feels much more comfortable these days.
“Honestly, I feel pretty comfortable on clay right now, to the point where I don’t know if I’ll be a little confused on the first day back at work,” she joked.
“Clay is fun. You can slide around. You see how strong you are, both in and out of corners,” she said. “For me, there are many valuable lessons that I learn from clay tennis.”
