Osaka returns to Australia in love with tennis all over again

Former world number one Naomi Osaka has a new outlook on tennis as she heads into the Australian Open, revealing her focus Down Under and on the 2022 tour is going to be about “having fun out on the court” first and winning grand slam silverware second.

Osaka spent large swathes of last year away from the circuit for mental health reasons, but says those struggles with the sport and everything surrounding the matches on the court are “in the past” now.

The world number 14 has finally found her love of tennis again, she says.

The 24-year-old enters the 2022 Australian Open as 13th seed, floating in the middle of the bracket, but still shapes as a major threat for anyone in her way to her title defence — a path that includes a potential showdown with current world number one and Aussie sweetheart Ash Barty in the fourth round.

Win or lose, however, Osaka says she’s just heading to Melbourne to enjoy her tennis again, and really get into the rhythm of the 2022 season early. If that leads to her third Aussie trophy, she adds, that would just be gravy.

“It feels really amazing, it’s an honour to be back here and see everyone so happy and smiling. I only really have one major goal this year, and it’s completely unrelated to results and stuff like that,” Osaka said after a hard-court warmup at Melbourne Park.

“For me, I just want to feel like every time I step on the court I’m either — not that I’m either, but I’m having fun,” she added. “I can walk off the court knowing that even if I lost, I tried as hard as I could.”

Osaka has a notable spring her step now after four months away from the grind of the tour, and is embracing every moment she has in the build-up to the Open’s first scheduled day on January 17.

“I didn’t know if I learned about myself or if I just learned what I want to do more, to be more patient with myself,” she said. “Not being so quick to judge myself on the things that I do wrong and instead trying to celebrate the things I do right.

“The beginning of the season is tricky because you’re extra nervous and don’t want to lose in the first round, but just embracing the energy here for me always works well.”

Read: Injury-free De Minaur promises “biggest year yet”

“I’m the type of person that cared a little bit too much about the results and the ranking and stuff like that,” Osaka told reporters at the Melbourne tuneup. “I just need to find a way to enjoy the game again because that’s the reason why I was playing in the first place.

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“I tend to internalize everything, and I think that might be how I grew up,” Osaka continued. “I didn’t really have many friends, so I didn’t really talk to anyone in the first place.

“Then I just slowly started to regain the feeling of love that I had towards the game.

“It’s not like [the love] ever went away, but I felt like it got overshadowed by a lot of emotions I was feeling by playing year after year. … I started tennis when I was three, and I never really took a break.”

Read: Stosur to goodbye singles tennis in Melbourne

Osaka begins her Australian campaign on Monday against unseeded Colombian Camila Osorio. Her draw could pit her against world number 23 Belinda Bencic in the third, and Barty in the fourth.

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