Journalist believes Osaka could be following Barty into early retirement with 'meaningful step back' used as term: "I don’t know that she would want to speak that out loud"

Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg feels like Naomi Osaka could step away from tennis but that would not mean she's necessarily retiring from the sport.

Naomi Osaka has not played in a very long time and she generally hasn't played much tennis in the past year. The Japanese player has many interests outside of tennis and seems to be pursuing them more than tennis lately. Osaka has a keen interest in the business side of things and has been making plenty of moves in that sphere.

Tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg feels like she might step away from tennis for any lenght of time:

“I think she might want to be opaque about it because she doesn’t want to put a label on it necessarily. I don’t think she would use the word ‘retiring’, but if she was stepping away from the sport for a while - and it could be for any length of time - I don’t know that she would want to speak that out loud. I think she would sense that that would raise a lot of bells and whistles.”

Rothenberg knows Osaka well as he authored a biography on Osaka to come out later this year and he sees a lot of similarities between Osaka and Barty when she first stepped away from tennis. He added:

“For her, the math is not adding up right now, for her to want to make the commitment. She knows how much work it is and how all-encompassing and preoccupying it is to be an active full-time player with the standards that she has. She’s won so much already, she’s not going to be content just to be a top-20 player again.”