Japanese athlete Naomi Osaka has now arrived in Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games. The tennis icon will be participating in her second Olympics following her maiden appearance in her homeland, in Tokyo, in 2021.
The athlete took a year-long hiatus in 2023 due to her pregnancy, but now, she is back on tour. In 2024, Osaka appeared in two quarter-finals, the Qatar Ladies Open and the Libema Open. Moreover, she also had an exceptional match against Iga Swiatek in the second round of the French Open. She almost defeated the reigning champion, but Swiatek made an impressive comeback and won the game.
On her preparations for the Games
Following her second-round exit at Wimbledon against Emma Navarro, Osaka made a trip to New York and practised on hard courts. This year, she will represent Japan at the tennis event on the clay courts of the Roland Garros grounds.
Osaka will play in the Olympics for the second time. The 2021 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year made history at the Tokyo Olympics as she became the first tennis player to light the Olympic cauldron.
After her return to tennis late last year after giving birth, the former world number one Naomi Osaka admitted that she was considering “a bigger picture” rather than just her performance in her comeback.
Currently, with her most recent match being a third-round loss to France’s Caroline Garcia at the Miami Open this month, the four-time major winner has not advanced past the quarterfinals in six tournaments since her 15-month maternity leave.
Osaka declared: “It’s really tough to look at it results-wise… But I have to look at it in a bigger picture and try to expand on my game and expand on the knowledge that I’m constantly learning as a player.”
Osaka at the Billie Jean King Cup
Since her return, Osaka’s world ranking has increased from 831 to 193. She is now expected to represent Japan against Kazakhstan in a Billie Jean King Cup qualifier in Tokyo. She is making her debut in the said competition for the first time since 2020 after Ai Sugiyama invited her.
The 26-year-old player expressed: “She’s just always felt very kind and genuine and I always really wanted to try, just to be better in team atmospheres as well.”
Since withdrawing from the Pan Pacific Open in September 2022 before her second-round match, it will be Osaka’s first appearance in Tokyo. As a gift to her Tokyo fans, she wanted to give them ‘something really exciting’ that would showcase her growth as a player.
“I hope that it’s fun for everyone to watch, but I’m not going to do anything crazy,” she admitted.
More so, Osaka declared that she wants to represent Japan at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
After questioning whether she would return, two-time champion Naomi Osaka triumphantly and movingly returned to the US Open, defeating 10th-seeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-2.
After giving birth to her daughter Shai, Japan’s Osaka missed the US Open last year, but she is still working hard to make a big comeback to the sport. Fortunately, she was at her best against 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko, winning in just 63 minutes with 19 wins.
With her victory, she claimed: “I was trying not to cry when I was walking out… Last year I was watching Coco (Gauff) play and I so badly wanted to step on these courts again… I didn’t know if I could … just to win this match and just to be in this atmosphere means so much to me.”
Osaka’s current performance
Osaka had not defeated a player ranked in the top ten in four years. She has advanced to the quarter-finals twice at tour events in 2024, although she has not yet advanced past the second round in the majors. However, she claimed that the US Open engages her more than any other competitions.
She remarked: “It’s like a combination of a lot of different things…I grew up here, so just seeing kids, and then remembering my daughter, but seeing kids coming and watching me play and just remembering that I was a kid… made me very emotional”
“Just seeing the stadium really full, it meant a lot, because I was, like, ‘Oh, I hope people come watch me play,” Osaka added.
Moreover, Osaka admitted that Ostapenko was a difficult first-round opponent, who entered the event as a wildcard and is currently ranked 88th. She claimed playing against the best players was actually freeing. At the French Open, she had a match point against world number one Iga Swiatek.
“I’m not sure if it’s motivation or if I feel like I have no other choice but to play well, and then it gets rid of all the expectations and all the pressure I put on myself, because I know, like, no matter what, the tennis is going to be really great tennis, even if I win or lose… That’s kind of my mindset whenever I play seeded players or really good players,” she said.
Novak Djokovic will compete at the Paris Olympics, the Olympic Committee of Serbia has announced.
The 37-year-old underwent knee surgery last month after he was forced to pull out of the French Open following an injury in the fourth round, where he won a gruelling four-and-a-half-hour match.
But he will be seen in action again at the Olympics.
Djokovic has played in every Olympics since 2008.
He won the bronze at his Olympic debut in Beijing.
But the Serbian, who has won a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles making him statistically the greatest tennis player in history, is yet to win a second Olympic medal.
He went out in the semi-finals of both the singles and the doubles at Tokyo 2020.
Currently world number three, Djokovic will try to end his title drought in 2024 after winning three out of the four Grand Slams last year.
Paris 2024 is “a priority” for him, he said in April, in quest of an elusive Olympic gold medal.
Dusan Lajovic, ranked 56th, will also play for Serbia in the July 27-August 4 Olympic tournament at Roland Garros.
Other famous contenders
Djokovic will be in good company, with other illustrious veterans also in the fray.
Rafael Nadal, 38, who won the Olympic singles gold in the Beijing 2008 Games (where Djokovic won the bronze), will be playing for Spain. Nadal also picked up the doubles gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics. This will be his third Olympics.
Two-time Olympic champion Andy Murray will also be seen in action, playing for Great Britain.
Murray, 37, who won the singles at London 2012 and Rio 2016, will be in the Olympics for the fifth time. He said it would be “fitting” to retire at the Games.
Naomi Osaka, former World No. 1, ended her 2024 season as she withdrew from the 2024 Hong Kong Open due to an injury.
With this unfortunate news, Osaka apologized to her fans and said that she would be attending the competition as a spectator instead.
Osaka said: “I’m really sorry that I have had to withdraw from competing at the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open and the rest of this tennis season.”
She added: “I love visiting the tournament and despite the obvious disappointment of not being able to play, I want to reassure all my wonderful Hong Kong fans that I will still be attending the event… I am very much looking forward to meeting you all.”
Peter Johnston, the director of International Events at the Hong Kong, China Tennis Association, stated: “We are obviously very disappointed that Naomi has had to withdraw from competing and we sincerely hope that she makes a speedy recovery from her injuries… We are nevertheless confident that we have a stellar field of world-class players to enthuse and excite Hong Kong tennis fans.”
The Hong Kong, China Tennis Association had made the announcement before the start of the tournament. Meanwhile, Emma Raducanu, former US Open champion, is set to compete in the tournament. Defending champion Leylah Fernandez and British No. 1 Katie Boulter will also participate in the event.
The 2024 Hong Kong Open will start on October 28 and run until November 3.
World No 1 Iga Swiatek will be in action at the Paris Olympics unlike Emma Raducanu, Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur.
World No 3 Sabalenka, World No 10 Jabeur and the 2021 US Open champion Raducanu are skipping the Olympics, complaining they will have too little time to adjust to the clay courts of Paris after playing on grass at Wimbledon. Wimbledon starts on July 1 and ends on July 14. The Olympics begin on July 26.
But Swiatek, who will represent Poland at the Olympics, sees no problems.
The 23-year-old is currently preparing for Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam where she hasn’t reached the semi-finals yet.
‘Potential on grass’
“I want to be successful wherever I play, you know? We do not underestimate any tournament, especially a Grand Slam. But I realise that I haven’t fully discovered my potential on grass yet. So I’ll concentrate on work. Generally, the preparations will not be any different due to the Olympics,” Swiatek told the Polish sports daily, Przeglad Sportowy.
Now focused on Wimbledon, she said: “We will start thinking about [the Olympics] only after Wimbledon, because in tennis it’s not like you have to be in shape for literally two weeks.
“We rather have to be in top form four or five times a year,” she added.
“Physically it is not always possible, but we will prepare as best we can and we will see. I think it would be a bigger challenge if there was grass first, clay in the middle, and grass again. Going back to the clay won’t be a problem for me.”
Swiatek recently concluded a rewarding season on clay, winning three consecutive titles at the Madrid Open, Rome Open and the French Open.
Resilient and good on clay, she said, “When I come back to it after a whole year, two days are enough and I feel great on clay. This year I already played the Billie Jean King Cup on hard, I went straight to clay in Stuttgart and I was able to play a very good tournament, so going to clay a second time will not be a problem.”
This will be Swiatek’s second Olympics.
She made her Olympic debut in the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, where she came unstuck on the hard courts. Swiatek was knocked out by Spain’s Paula Badosa in the second round in straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (4).
