Naomi Osaka’s social media accounts have stayed silent since Tennis Australia tweeted on Sunday that the two-time Melbourne champion would miss the primary Grand Slam of the 12 months, giving no motive for her absence.
Naomi Osaka of Japan hits balls to the gang after her victory towards Daria Saville of Australia throughout their girls’s singles match on day two of the Pan Pacific Open tennis event in Tokyo on 20 September 2022. Picture: Philip FONG/AFP
TOKYO – Naomi Osaka has not performed a tennis match since September and her withdrawal from subsequent week’s Australian Open has raised considerations that the previous world primary might by no means seem on courtroom once more.
Osaka’s social media accounts have stayed silent since Tennis Australia tweeted on Sunday that the two-time Melbourne champion would miss the primary Grand Slam of the 12 months, giving no motive for her absence.
Osaka’s posts over the previous few months have proven her travelling in Europe together with her boyfriend, the rapper Cordae, and asserting that her sports activities administration company had signed up world quantity two Ons Jabeur.
But there was little proof of the Japanese participant spending time practising on courtroom, fuelling hypothesis that the four-time Grand Slam champion’s tennis profession might be over on the age of 25.
Tennis author Ben Rothenberg, who has authored a biography of Osaka due out later this 12 months, believes she has already taken a “meaningful step back” from the game and is intentionally conserving quiet.
“I think she might want to be opaque about it because she doesn’t want to put a label on it necessarily,” he instructed AFP.
“I don’t think she would use the word ‘retiring’, but if she was stepping away from the sport for a while – and it could be for any length of time – I don’t know that she would want to speak that out loud.
“I feel she would sense that that may elevate a number of bells and whistles.”
‘MORE DOWN THAN UP’
Osaka has previously talked about struggling with her mental health and revealed that she suffered depression.
She spent all of 2022 outside the top 10, enduring first-round defeats at both the French and US Opens and withdrawing from Wimbledon with an Achilles’ injury.
She also split from long-time coach Wim Fissette last summer, replacing him with her father Leonard Francois.
Her last appearance was at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September, where the home favourite withdrew before her second-round match, complaining of abdominal pain.
She told reporters at that tournament that she had gone through “extra down than up” in 2022 and that she had “realized so much” about herself.
She is now ranked 47 in the world, having hit the summit for the first time in 2019.
Rothenberg believes Osaka is “recalculating issues” and may decide that she is not prepared to make the sacrifices needed to continue as a professional tennis player.
“For her, the maths just isn’t including up proper now, for her to need to make the dedication,” he said.
“She is aware of how a lot work it’s and the way all-encompassing and preoccupying it’s to be an energetic full-time participant with the requirements that she has.
“She’s won so much already, she’s not going to be content just to be a top-20 player again.”
Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, then the world’s undisputed primary, shocked the tennis world in March final 12 months when she introduced her retirement aged 25.
She defined that she was “spent physically” and now not had the drive wanted to proceed.
BUSINESS INTERESTS
Osaka has a number of pursuits outdoors of taking part in tennis, together with her sports activities administration company Evolve, which counts Jabeur and Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios amongst its shoppers.
She has additionally invested in Pickleball, a tennis-like sport that’s rising quick within the United States, and boasts quite a few endorsements.
Her web site describes herself as not solely a tennis participant but additionally “fashion nerd”, “entrepreneur” and “social change advocate”.
Osaka was named the world’s top-earning lady athlete for 2022 by Forbes, with reported earnings of $51.1 million, at the same time as her tennis profession continued to dive.
Rothenberg says there shall be important stress from sponsors urging Osaka to “stay on the hamster wheel” {of professional} tennis.
But he says the truth that she has chosen to not proves that she is “making this decision for herself”.
“Whatever her reasons may be, players almost always err on the side of choosing to play,” he mentioned.
“So for her to hit pause, I think shows a good deal of control of the situation.”
And Rothenberg believes there’s nonetheless loads of time for Osaka to come back again, ought to she want to.
“She has more runway in front of her if she wants to take back off again and get back on tour,” he mentioned.
“But it won’t get any easier with more time off. The more time she spends away, it will not get easier.”