4-time main champion Naomi Osaka says she is “studying quite a lot of classes” from being a mum and hopes these expertise can result in French Open success.
The 26-year-old Japanese participant has been reunited along with her 10-month-old daughter Shai in Paris after spending 5 weeks aside in the course of the European clay-court swing.
Osaka agreed when requested if being a great clay-court participant required comparable expertise – persistence, resilience and flexibility – to being a mom.
“That is a humorous query, however I do assume mums do need to be all of these issues,” mentioned the previous world primary.
“There are folks which are naturally like that anyway.
“However for me, I’m studying quite a lot of classes by means of motherhood, and I hope that I can bear in mind to use them on the tennis courtroom.”
On being reunited with Shai, she added: “Being away from her was actually powerful, however I referred to as her every single day.
“I noticed how nicely she was doing and I noticed how completely happy she was, in order that made me completely happy too.
“Yesterday she walked for the primary time, so I used to be actually completely happy about that. It is actually cool to have her right here.”
Every of Osaka’s main triumphs have come on onerous courts – on the US Open in 2018 and 2020, and the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021.
Osaka has by no means been previous the final 32 on the Roland Garros clay.
Having returned from maternity depart in January, Osaka is ranked 134th on the planet and reached the final 16 on the clay on the Italian Open final week.