By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday August 20, 2024

Ever since Naomi Osaka began her comeback from maternity leave in January in Australia, this year’s Australian Open has been marked on her calendar. The four-time major champion made her first breakthrough at a major in Flushing Meadows in 2018, and repeated the feat in 2020.

Now 26, and having just recently celebrated the first birthday of her baby daughter Shai, Osaka is now firmly back in the Top 100, and ready to take her place in the US Open draw as a wild card.



By her own lofty expectations, it has not been a banner comeback for Osaka – yet – in 2024. She has yet to reach a semifinal on tour in the 16 events she has played, and she hasn’t earned a Top-10 win yet. But that doesn’t mean she hasn’t made progress.

Ranked outside of the Top 800 in January, the four-time major champion now finds herself at 85. She’s won 18 matches on tour, but a loss at Roland-Garros to eventual champion Iga Swiatek is the match that made most observers stand up and take notice of the fact that Osaka can still be impactful – and elite – on tour.

Asked about Osaka’s future today during ESPN’s conference call to promote coverage of the US Open, 18-time major champion Chris Evert says that she is concerned about recent remarks that Osaka made in a social media post after her recent loss to Ashlyn Krueger in qualifying at Cincinnati.

In it Osaka said: “I don’t feel like I’m in my body. It’s a strange feeling, missing balls I shouldn’t miss, hitting balls softer than I used to.”

“That last quote she has concerns me a little bit,” Evert said. “She said, my biggest issue currently is I don't feel like I'm in my body. She said, it scares me. My racquet should feel like an extension of my hand, but it's not. I'm missing balls I shouldn't be missing.



“She's going through some doubtful times. We'll see if she can get that magic, because it is the US Open. She has won this title a few times, so let's see if she can get that magic going. I think her story, her journey, remains to be seen.”

Evert believes that Osaka has the talent to get back to the top of the sport, but questions that the intangibles are there.

It can be complicated for a player like Osaka, who is stressing the importance of having balance and mental health in her life. She doesn’t see life the way she did when she was young, but would like to play the same type of tennis.

“I know she has the game, but it takes more than the game,” she said. “It takes a lot of confidence and it takes a lot of focus. We'll see. She's in a different part of her life right now where it seems she's so calm and she's so relaxed and happy and peaceful. The mental problems haven't really affected her. She has a child, which she's madly in love with. Sometimes when you're too happy, that can't always be good either, I don't know, for us to be intense and fierce. We'll see. I hope she does well, though.”

Osaka’s performance against Swiatek was a positive step, and showed how she rises to the challenge of facing a top player. In that match, Osaka rekindled her magic of old and proved that not only can she play at Swiatek’s level, she can do it against the Pole on her best surface.

“The fact that she got to match point against Swiatek at the French Open was pretty awesome,” she said. “That was the best I've ever seen her play on clay courts. Now she can be a clay court player, she knows she can play on clay. After that, she dropped off again.”

John McEnroe, also on the conference call, says that Osaka’s success depends on her head. The talent, no doubt, is there.

“She's got the talent,” he said. “It's all about what Chrissie said, where her head is at, how deep she's willing to dig, enjoy the competition. That part is the key. The game is there, but she has to find that in order to win another major. Could she? I think she could. Like Chrissie said, I don't know if she will. It depends on whether or not she's able to harness that.”