"When I watched her, she's just going to get better and better": Naomi Osaka tipped to do some 'big damage' on tennis return by Barbara Schett

After missing over a year due to giving birth to her first child, Naomi Osaka could soon become a serious threat on the WTA tour, according to Eurosport analyst Barbara Schett.

Osaka made her return to competitive tennis at the 2024 Brisbane International this month, after giving birth to daughter Shai in July 2023. The Japanese superstar won her first match in over a year, defeating German Tamara Korpatsch in the opening round before falling to former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova. Although she was scheduled to compete against Emma Raducanu in an exhibition match this week, both players pulled out of the match, citing "precautionary reasons".

"When I watched her, she's just going to get better and better,” said Schett. “And she's one of those women coming back from pregnancy who has the power, and the power is good in women's tennis nowadays. So I think if she stays fit and healthy, and she hangs in there as well after a few losses - probably we have to give her a little bit of time - she can definitely do some big damage again in the future.”

Furthermore, the former player-turned-analyst expressed her surprise at Osaka's withdrawal from the exhibition match against Raducanu, stating she assumed the two-time Australian Open champion would have enjoyed being back on Rod Laver Arena.

“I'm a little bit surprised because it would have been one more match for her to play to get ready before she hits the Australian Open," speculated Schett. "But we know that in Brisbane she had a very tough match against Karolina Pliskova which went the distance and if you haven't played for a long time, she needs some time to recover and get used to that impact from matches because it's completely different than practice.

“Hopefully, it's not something that worries her and it’s not a little injury or something like that. But I was also surprised to see that she pulled out of that match because it would have been nice to play a match on Rod Laver Arena in front of a big crowd to get used to that environment again. But who knows? She's the only one who knows the reasons.”