“Top ten will be her best friend”: Former Serena Williams coach sees Naomi Osaka rising again in 2026

Former Serena Williams coach Rick Macci has chosen his wildcard for the season and expects her return to the top 10 during 2026. The four-time major champion ended 2025 at her best level in more than five years, after reaching the final of the WTA 1000 Canadian Open and the semifinals at the US Open.

It took the 28-year-old Japanese player several years to return to the forefront of the WTA Tour. Between injuries, mental health issues, and a career hiatus due to her pregnancy, Osaka had fallen out of the top 20 in January 2022, and since then faced a long road to return to the seeded positions in a Grand Slam.

However, in the upcoming Australian Open, Osaka will arrive as the 16th seed, which allows her to avoid any higher-ranked opponent at least until the fourth round. With the possibility of playing a more accessible draw than in recent majors, the two-time Aussie Open champion has good chances to continue rising in the rankings and contend for big titles.

“Osaka to be the wildcard and pull many upsets this year,” Macci posted on X. “Top ten will be her best friend and be right there in the end. She was a different player last year with the coaching change and had clarity motivation and a better understanding of the geometry of the court.”

The former world No. 1 will play her first tournament of the season at the United Cup, where she will join world No. 100 Shintaro Mochizuki in their first joint participation in the mixed tournament at the start of the year. Japan is in Group E along with Greece and Great Britain, so Osaka has top-level duels to start the season, facing former world No. 3 Maria Sakkari and 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu.

The rise in Osaka's ranking began in the second half of the year, following her separation from coach Patrick Mouratoglou. In her first week of competition, Osaka had a notable campaign at the Canadian Open – joined by Tomasz Wiktorowski as coach, the former trainer of Iga Swiatek – which ended with the Japanese reaching her first WTA 1000 final in four years.

On her way, Osaka defeated rivals such as Liudmila Samsonova (13th), Jelena Ostapenko (22nd), Elina Svitolina (10th), and Clara Tauson (16th). In the final, she had a set advantage against teenager Victoria Mboko, but her level dropped in the second part of the match and the local player took the victory and her first title 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

In any case, it was a preview of what was to come for Osaka, who, as in her best years, showed her highest level during the North American swing. At the US Open, she beat world No. 3 Coco Gauff along the way and overcame matches against rivals like Daria Kasatkina (15th) and Karolina Muchova (11th). In the semifinals, she had a tight match in which she again lost after a set advantage, this time against Amanda Anisimova (7-6(4), 6-7(3), 3-6).

Unfortunately for the Japanese player, the Asian swing was not as fruitful, and after having reached her best ranking of the year as world No. 14, she finished the season at No. 16. Her last appearance was at the Japan Women’s Open, where she reached the quarterfinals, but an injury forced her to withdraw before taking the court against Jaqueline Cristian, ending her season with a 35-15 record and more than 2.5 million dollars in prize money.