Naomi Osaka may have been a no-show on the tennis courts in recent months, owing to her pregnancy, but the sporting icon isn’t budging when it comes to her love for basketball.
The Japanese star, who resides in Beverly Hills, California, is currently enjoying her trip to New York. On Tuesday (January 31), the former World No. 1 made a rare appearance and was seen attending a basketball match between the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers at Madison Square Garden.
The 25-year-old kept her fans posted about her whereabouts as she shared a picture from the thrilling contest on her social media.
She went for a monochrome look for the sporting event, wearing a mask and carefully hiding her baby bump with a Louis Vuitton scarf. She also took some time out to make a fan’s day by posing for a selfie.
A day prior to her visit to Madison Square Garden, the tennis sensation was also spotted wearing a baggy fit on a fun night out with her mother in New York City. The duo reportedly grabbed dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Nippon.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.