cnn
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Former world number one Naomi Osaka intends to return to professional tennis in 2024, the 25-year-old said in an interview with ESPN on Wednesday.
The four-time major champion, who welcomed a baby girl in July with her boyfriend, rapper Cordae, said she plans to have a busy schedule next year.
“It's definitely a lot more tournaments than I used to play,” Osaka told ESPN. “So, I think some people will be happy with that.”
“I think it's because I realized that I don't know how the beginning of the year will go. I don't know the level of play and I think I have to adapt. So at least I'm going to prepare for a very good end to the year,” Osaka said.
Osaka, who has not played since the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September 2022, previously said she planned to return to tennis in 2024 for the Australian Open, a tournament she won on two previous occasions.
Osaka was asked if her break from tennis caused her to miss it, to which she responded “definitely.”
“I've been watching games and thinking, 'I wish I could play too,'” Osaka said. “But now I am in this position and I am very grateful. “I really love my daughter a lot, but I think that really fueled the fire in me.”
Osaka took some time away from competitive tennis and made several highly publicized revelations about her struggles with mental health following an incident in 2021 where she was visibly stressed and emotional while addressing the media during a mandatory press conference at Roland Garros. .
He subsequently withdrew from the French Open that year and revealed that he had “suffered long bouts of depression” since winning his first major championship in 2018.
Osaka was present on Wednesday at the US Open in New York. He also participated the same day in a forum on mental health at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, along with US Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps, the US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Dr. Brian Hainline, president of the US Tennis Association Board of the Association and medical director of the NCAA.
Osaka said she learned a lot from speaking out about her experiences with mental health and becoming an advocate for mental health awareness.
“I feel like I'm someone who is learning all the time. Obviously, I learned a lot from the talk as I spoke,” Osaka said. “I would say my role is just to raise awareness and let people know that they are not alone.
“Physical pain and mental pain are pretty much the same to me. We have doctors for physical health, but when we talk about mental health it is not so well received, so we just raise awareness about it.”
She was also asked about her previous comments that she felt “lonely” while she was pregnant.
“I definitely only know this world, the tennis world,” Osaka said. “Being away from that for a long time was new for me. I think it was just the new situation and not being able to train like I wanted, it made me feel like I was staying at home. … It felt like there were a lot of restrictions.”
