BRISBANE, Australia — Former No. 1 and new mother Naomi Osaka hit the follow court docket Wednesday forward of the Brisbane Worldwide as she ready for her much-anticipated return to tennis.
Osaka will make her WTA comeback on the match, which begins Sunday at Pat Rafter Area. A two-time Australian and US Open champion, Osaka pulled out of final yr’s Australian Open in Melbourne and later revealed 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.
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Osaka has performed just one recreation for the reason that 2021 US Open in New York. She was main Daria Saville 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 from the match.
“She’s actually pumped, excited to be again in Brisbane,” match director Cameron Pearson stated Wednesday. “She arrived Christmas morning and was out practising a number of hours later. No Christmas pudding for her, she was straight into it.”
Rafael Nadal additionally is ready to return from harm in Brisbane in a 32-man ATP subject so robust that Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini and 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem must qualify to function in it.
Nadal held his first follow session Thursday in Brisbane.
Thiem made the Australian Open ultimate in 2020, and Berrettini was a semifinalist two years later. Each are at present sitting exterior the top-60 cutoff mark that obtained computerized entry into the season-opening occasion.
Holger Rune, at No. 8, is the highest-ranked man within the match. 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.
