Osaka puts Cincinnati absence down to mom duties: “Tennis is my side hustle”
Naomi Osaka finally explained her Cincinnati withdrawal at Flushing Meadows on Saturday, and the reason had nothing to do with tennis: her daughter needed her at home. The two-time champion, seeded No. 13 and opening against Anastasia Zakharova, called the tour her “side hustle,” then dropped the hedging entirely when asked how far she expects to go in New York.
Naomi Osaka, US Open 2026 practice | © IMAGO/mpi04/Psnewz
Naomi Osaka arrived at the US Open seeded No. 13 and settled the question of her August in a single sentence, telling reporters at Flushing Meadows on Saturday that her withdrawal from the Cincinnati WTA 1000 had nothing to do with her body and everything to do with being at home.
“I do feel like I’ve played a lot of matches,” the Japanese said the day before the main draw begins (35 matches in 2026, 25/10, editor’s note). “Honestly, this is the surface that I’m most comfortable with, but I think people forget my main job is to be a mom. This is kind of like my side hustle a little bit. I just happen to be really good at it.”
“My daughter, she needed me to be at home,” she added. “That’s just what I felt was the priority.”
Osaka won this title in 2018 and 2020, the only two US Open titles Japan has ever claimed, and she is 28-7 across 35 main-draw matches in New York.
Her hard-court season, by contrast, has been modest: 10-6 at tour level, with a semi-final in Washington her best result of the North American swing and a runner-up finish in Bad Homburg (grass) her only final of 2026. She reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, her deepest run at a major since the 2025 US Open semi-final.
Confidence intact on her most comfortable surface
The reordering of priorities did not extend to her ambitions in New York. Asked what she wanted from the fortnight, Osaka caught herself mid-hedge and refused to finish it.
“My goal this tournament is my goal in every tournament I play,” she said. “I feel like I always say ‘hopefully,’ but I think if I prepare well and do my job, then I will. I don’t want to say ‘hopefully’ again, but I will get far.”
She pointed to her record here as the reason. “I think I have a pretty good record here, so I can kind of bank on that and use that as confidence,” she said. “I feel good. I’m coming off of, where were we, Toronto, and that was a pretty good result for me.”
The numbers back the instinct. Osaka is 28-6 in the first round at Grand Slam level, and she has reached four major finals and won all four. She opens against Anastasia Zakharova on the same side of the draw as seed No. 12 Belinda Bencic.
Nishikori pairing fell through on timing
The crowded week that preceded the tournament cost her a partnership she had wanted for years. Osaka confirmed she had tried to enter the mixed doubles with Kei Nishikori, who was playing the qualifying event, and that the two could not make it work.
“I really wanted to play mixed doubles with Kei,” she said. “But I think he was playing quallies, which is a whole different thing. It just didn’t feel like we had enough time, and I had the busiest week ever leading into this US Open, and it didn’t feel smart. Obviously it would have been my dream, like as a kid, you can only dream of doing things like this, but it sucked that we didn’t have enough time to do it.”
On her daughter and a racquet of her own, she projected nothing at all. “She loves swinging her little mini racquet around, and she actually hasn’t been on a real court yet,” Osaka said. “Maybe I’ll update you in a couple of years.”
