Osaka on her comeback: “I’m putting my soul into every point”

Naomi Osaka has famously struggled with the strain of the tour on occasion. Now, on her return from maternity leave, she’s regaining some of the sense of fun that she sometimes missed.

Despite her three-set loss in Brisbane to Karolina Pliskova, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4, she told reporters afterwards that she felt differently about defeats now.

“I do feel different. I mean, of course I feel sad, but the sadness is me being, like, Aww, I wish I could have done better, because I know I’m spending so much time away from [daughter Shai], so I want it to be worth it somehow. Also, I feel like it fuelled me a lot to do better.

“I think I did do really well this match. It does sting a little bit less because I know that I literally gave everything that I could. Yeah, it’s like a two-way type of thing.”

Osaka: I have a lot of heart

And following her exit from the tournament, she reflected on what she had learned so far from her return to action.

“I think I learned that while I had to relearn myself a lot, and I just relearned that – this is my opinion – but I think I have a lot of heart. I think when I’m playing and I’m at my best, I’m just really putting my entire soul into every point.

“So, I don’t know, it was fun to play that and rediscover that feeling again.”

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