BRISBANE, Australia — Former No. 1 and new mother Naomi Osaka hit the apply courtroom Wednesday forward of the Brisbane Worldwide as she ready for her much-anticipated return to tennis.
Osaka will make her WTA comeback on the event which begins Sunday at Pat Rafter Area. A two-time Australian and U.S. Open champion, Osaka pulled out of final yr’s Australian Open in Melbourne earlier than later revealing she was pregnant.
The U.S.-based Japanese participant and her American rapper boyfriend Cordae turned dad and mom to daughter Shai in Los Angeles in July.
Osaka has solely performed one sport because the 2021 U.S. Open in New York. She was main Daria Gavrilova 1-0 on the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September 2021, earlier than the Australian suffered a critical knee harm and needed to retire within the match.
Rafael Nadal can be set to return from harm in Brisbane in a 32-man ATP discipline so sturdy that Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini and 2020 U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem must qualify to function in it.
Thiem made the Australian Open last in 2020 and Berrettini was a semifinalist two years later. Each are at the moment sitting exterior the top-60 cutoff mark which obtained automated entry into the season-opening occasion.
Holger Rune, at No. 8, is the highest-ranked male within the event. American Ben Shelton and three-time Grand Slam singles champion Andy Murray are additionally entered.
Reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Jelena Ostapenko, Victoria Azarenka, Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens are within the 54-player girls’s draw.
