Osaka Says She Is Not Far From Her Best Form, While Admitting She Has Wondered How Long She Will Play
TOKYO — Former world number one Naomi Osaka said in Tokyo on Sunday, October 25, that she is close to rediscovering the form that brought her four Grand Slam titles, as she returns to the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo next week as the seventh seed. She also acknowledged that she had thought about retirement and often wondered how long she would continue playing.
"It's tough, sometimes I look towards my future and wonder how long I'm going to play," Osaka told reporters. "Because if my daughter did say she didn't want me to travel as much, I'm not the type of person to ignore that."
The 29-year-old Japanese player stepped away from tennis for 15 months after the birth of her daughter before coming back in 2024, and is currently ranked 19th in the world. She has shown signs of returning to her best this season, reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon after beating top seed Aryna Sabalenka and making the last 16 at both the French Open and the US Open, as well as the semi-finals in Washington and the quarter-finals in Toronto.
"I genuinely don't feel like I'm that far off," Osaka said of her chances of contending for titles again. "I think I built a pretty solid base and I'm excited to see if I can continue learning and going further in tournaments." Osaka opens her Tokyo campaign against Italy's Jasmine Paolini, while world number one Elena Rybakina also headlines the field alongside Alex Eala of the Philippines.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 大坂直美2025年5月在罗马举行的意大利公开赛上（资料图）。图：TristanLaplap，CC BY-SA 4.0，经维基共享资源。 / Naomi Osaka at the Italian Open in Rome in May 2025 (file photo). Photo: TristanLaplap, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
