The former world No. 1 tennis star is opening up about her ongoing struggle to get back into the swing of things. Since giving birth to her daughter, Shai, in July 2023, Naomi Osaka has been working hard to make her comeback to the sport she’s been playing since she was three years old, but after a string of disappointing losses, the athlete said she feels “scared.”
In an emotional Instagram post, Osaka, who now ranks 90th, admitted to feeling out of her own body since returning from maternity leave. She wrote “In a weird way, I’ve come to appreciate losses, you don’t play tennis for 20+ years without your fair share of them.”
The 26-year-old went on to say the losses aren’t her ultimate concern, however. “The tennis racquet should feel like an extension of my hand. ... [T]his should be as simple as breathing to me, but it’s not.
“...[T]he only feeling I could liken how I feel right now to is being postpartum,” she continued. The four-time Grand Slam champion returned to the court back in January, only six months after giving birth to her first child with rapper Cordae.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about one in every eight mothers experiences some form of postpartum depression. Some mothers have reported that their postpartum symptoms lasted up to three years after childbirth.
Osaka’s Instagram statement came just two days after she experienced a devastating loss to American Ashlyn Krueger during the Aug 12 women’s singles at the Cincinnati Open. Despite her rocky crawl back onto the tennis court, Osaka said she still “love[s] the process (although the process doesn’t love me sometimes haha).”
She’s set on being an example of perseverance for her daughter. “I want to teach my daughter that she can achieve so many things with hard work.... I want her to aim for the stars and never think her dreams are too big,” she continued on Instagram.
The two-time US Open champ is set to return to this year’s US Open later this month in New York City.