Olympic sized support for Naomi Osaka amid return to action as 2024 season draws closer

Naomi Osaka shared a new video preparing for her comeback in 2024 and received comments from significant Olympic medalists.

The 4-times Grand Slam champion is counting down the days until her return after more than a year away from the WTA Tour. Naomi Osaka took a break due to inconsistent results between 2021 and 2022, along with mental health issues that she has openly discussed. Months later, she announced her pregnancy, and in July of this year, she welcomed her daughter, Shai.

Currently unranked, Naomi Osaka is gearing up for her comeback in Australia and shared a video of her training on Instagram. She received comments from sports legends Allyson Felix, a retired American track and field athlete with six Olympic gold medals, and Michael Phelps, the all-time record holder with 23 gold medals.

At 26 years old, Osaka aims to return to the upper echelons of the rankings and contend for major tournaments. The Japanese player will compete in the WTA 500 Brisbane Open starting from December 31, with her sights set on making a comeback at the Australian Open, a tournament she has previously won (2019-2021).

“I am really excited about getting back out on court and competing, I always love starting my season in Brisbane and can’t wait to return,” former world No. 1 said

The tennis player last competed in the Tokyo Open 2022, where she withdrew before her second-round match against Beatriz Haddad Maia due to an abdominal injury. Osaka will seek to accumulate points that will allow her to compete in major tournaments, although she is likely to have little difficulty obtaining wild cards for events she may not qualify for:

“I know that I have so much to look forward to in the future, one thing I’m looking forward to is for my kid to watch one of my matches and tell someone, ‘that’s my mom’, haha. 2023 will be a year that’ll be full of lessons for me and I hope I’ll see you guys in the start of the next one cause I’ll be at Aus 2024. Love you all infinitely.”