Naomi Osaka hadn’t won a match at Wimbledon in six years and hadn’t even played there in five. She never liked playing on grass courts.
A year ago, she was away from tennis, becoming a mother — her daughter, Shai, turns 1 on Tuesday. Osaka remembers watching Wimbledon on TV while in the hospital.
“I’m just really happy to be here,” Osaka said Monday after a tough 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 win over Diane Parry in the first round at the All England Club. She rallied to win the last two games from 4-all in the third set. “It’s funny because Wimbledon was the first tournament I watched after giving birth.”
While the attention was on the health and status of other top players like Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka, who withdrew due to injuries, Osaka made a positive return.
She has won the U.S. Open and Australian Open twice each on hard courts but has never gone past the third round at Wimbledon or the French Open.
Osaka, formerly ranked No. 1, is now No. 113 after taking a 15-month break from tennis until January. Before facing Parry, she was reminiscing about the past year.
“They have this feature on my phone, ‘This time last year.’ I was looking at that. I was looking at photos of myself in the hospital. It’s really amazing to be here now,” Osaka said.
“My focus last year was just trying to get through each day. Honestly, after giving birth, I didn’t really know what was happening; I was just trying to recover.”
