Former tennis world number one Naomi Osaka announced a few days ago that she will not participate in this year’s Australian Open. Now the twenty-five-year-old athlete came up with an explanation and announced her pregnancy. “2023 will be full of lessons for me,” she said, according to BBC Osaka, adding that she hopes to return to tennis next year.
“One thing I look forward to is my kid watching one of my matches and saying to someone, ‘That’s my mom,'” she wrote in a statement on Twitter.
The two-time US Open champion last played a competitive match in her native Tokyo. Although Osaka won her opening match here against Darje Saville, she had to withdraw due to health problems before the second round match.
Currently ranked 42nd in the WTA rankings, the two-time winner in Melbourne is the latest in a string of recent Australian Open champions to announce a maternity break.
Ashleigh Barty, last year’s tournament winner, retired in March and announced last week that she was pregnant. Caroline Wozniacki, the 2018 champion, welcomed her second child with husband David Lee in October, The Guardian reported. Longtime world number one Serena Williams took a maternity break in 2017 and returned later that year. She continued to play tennis until 2022, when she ended her career.
After withdrawing from the 2021 French Open, Osaka spoke of having suffered long bouts of depression since winning the breakthrough title at the 2018 US Open.
Subsequently, the tennis player spoke repeatedly and openly about mental health. “I don’t think there is a perfect path in life, but I’ve always felt that if you go forward with good intentions, you will eventually find your way,” she wrote on Wednesday.
