‘Excited’ Osaka on the comeback trail, starting with Aussie return

Two-time Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka is hoping she can return to her winning ways Down Under as she prepares to hit the comeback trail in 2024, and even though it’s going to be a hard road, she admits she’s “really excited” to get back to playing.

Osaka has had a staggered playing career since early 2020, first because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then her public battles with mental health and attempts to increase awareness around the subject, then time away in 2023 because she was expecting. Now she’s facing another challenge: returning to the tennis world.

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“I am really excited about getting back out on court and competing,” Osaka recently admitted as the 2024 WTA Tour start date loomed closer and closer. “I always love starting my season in Brisbane and can’t wait to return.”

The 26-year-old’s comeback will be the talk of the town once it finally begins in Brisbane in late December. Before the 2020s, and even in the early years of the decade, Osaka was a dominant rising force. Between 2018 and 2021 she won the Australian and US Opens twice each and reigned as the tour’s top player in 2019 too.

From Brisbane, she knows all eyes will be on her. It’s a feeling she knows well and is looking forward to.

What she isn’t so used to is how the women’s top-level tennis tour looks these days. The 2024 campaign will have as many stops as the competition has seen, and Osaka is planning to balance that as she eases back into competitive life.

That doesn’t mean less play though; really, she says, it means more. Brisbane is just the start of what she sees as a “more robust” tour schedule that should see her play as much as she ever has.

“It’s definitely way more tournaments than I used to play,” Osaka said in an interview with ESPN. “So I think some people will be happy with that. I think it’s because I realized I don’t know how the beginning of the year is going to go for me. I don’t know the level of play and I think I have to ease into it.

“So at the very least, I’ll set myself up for a very good end of the year.”

Before she gets back to play though, she’s already looking back at the last few years and the journey she’s taken—and the things she’s overcome—to get to this place. In particular, Osaka pointed out all the support she’s had through her mental health issues, activism focus, and welcoming her daughter into the world.

“For everyone that supported me throughout the years, thank you,” the returning tour champion wrote on Instagram on Friday. “Thank you for believing in me and thank you for putting up with me. I know we’ve shared some really amazing memories and I also know I’ve done some things I wish I would’ve handled differently (lol). Regardless of all that, thank you for allowing me to grow up on my own time and thank you for showing me a ton of patience.”

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you all but I’m so extremely grateful.”