The former world number one Naomi Osaka has given birth to a girl and plans to return to the courts for the 2024 Australian Open, said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on its website today.
The Japanese player announced that she was pregnant last January on her social media, where she said she hoped her child would watch her matches and posted a photo of an ultrasound and also added that 2023 would be "a year full of lessons" for her, so she hoped to return to tennis in 2024.
According to the IOC, the news would have been confirmed by Osaka's partner, American rapper Cordae, during a concert to celebrate the Calgary Stampede rodeo, which takes place this July in the Canadian city.
Naomi Osaka is officially a mom ????
— wta (@WTA) July 11, 2023
The former world number one, 25 years old, played for the last time in September 2022 at the Tokyo Premier, where she withdrew before her second-round match, suffering from abdominal pain, and she is now ranked 436th in the world rankings (as of July 3).
In last year's Grand Slam events, Osaka lost in the third round in Melbourne, in the first round of Roland Garros, and the US Open and also did not play Wimbledon due to an Achilles tendon injury.
Naomi Osaka, daughter of an American father of Haitian origin and a Japanese mother, competes internationally representing Japan and is known for reflecting on mental health in sports.
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