Japan's Naomi Osaka celebrates after winning against France's Clara Burel at the Women's WTA Rome Open tennis tournament at Foro Italico in Rome Japan's Naomi Osaka will be hoping for a strong showing at the Paris Olympics. Picture: Tiziana Fabi/AFP
Japan's Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron in Tokyo three years ago but she has it all to prove in Paris as she continues her slow-burning return to tennis.
The four-time Grand Slam champion begins her Paris Games campaign against Germany's Angelique Kerber on Saturday and she will be hoping for a change of fortunes after a difficult few months.
Osaka returned to tennis late last year after taking 15 months out for the birth of her daughter Shai, and her comeback has not yet lived up to her earlier high standards.
The 26-year-old said she "didn't feel fully confident" in herself after losing to American Emma Navarro in less than an hour in the second round of Wimbledon.
Paris 2024 #OpeningCeremony mood 😎
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024
🎥: @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/drmp6jNmsF
She did better at the French Open, holding a match point against Iga Swiatek in the second round before losing in three sets to the Polish world number one.
Osaka is hoping the green shoots of recovery she showed in that match will hold her in good stead when she returns to the clay of Roland Garros for the Olympics.
"Since I'm out so early, I really want to take the time and train for the Olympics because I do want to do well," she said after her Wimbledon exit.
"I do know that my last clay court match was really good. So I might end up liking that surface a lot more than grass now.”
Former world number one Osaka is now ranked 102, but she earned her place at the Paris Games through a special exemption for Grand Slam champions.
She is facing a fellow mother and former world number one in Kerber, who has announced she will retire after the Games.
Osaka has mixed memories of the Olympics, lighting the cauldron in Tokyo before losing in straight sets in the third round to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic.
Igniting the Olympic Summer Games. 🔥
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024
We're just hours away from lighting the flame at @Paris2024. 🤩 Take a look back at the last five cauldron lightings that have lit up the Summer Olympics. 👀 Who will light the flame tonight? #Olympics | #Paris2024 | #LastFive pic.twitter.com/0vfL9iykQU
She told reporters in Tokyo earlier this year that "growing up watching the Olympics on TV, I felt that it was a celebration of sport”.
"I thought it brought everyone together and just to be able to be an athlete there and interact with other athletes is one of the funnest things that I've ever done," she added.
Born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a father from Haiti, Osaka won her first Grand Slam at the US Open in 2018.
She went on to capture the title at Flushing Meadows again in 2020, and also won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021.
She has struggled with mental health and depression, and took a break from tennis after the French Open in 2021 before returning to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
Osaka has been vocal about social issues, wearing face masks bearing the names of individuals who had died of alleged police or racist violence in the United States.
She also has several interests away from playing tennis, including her sports management agency Evolve, which counts Ons Jabeur and Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios among its clients.
But she said when she began her comeback that becoming a mother had rekindled her love for tennis.
Speaking in April about playing at the Paris Olympics, she said her ambitions for the competition were clear.
"I have high ambitions of myself and I hope that I can do really well and get a medal," she said.
AFP