MELBOURNE, Australia — For Naomi Osaka, this trip to the other side of the world was starting to become a roller coaster ride for the ages.
The new year started well, with the finals taking place in Auckland, New Zealand. However, on the verge of winning her first tournament since becoming a mother, she had to withdraw from her match against Clara Towson due to injury.
In her words, the scan was “not good.” It’s the next best development, just days before the Australian Open begins.
A few days later, a fire broke out in Los Angeles. The blaze broke out a few blocks from her home. She called a friend and asked him to obtain her daughter’s birth certificate.
On Monday night, she returned to her favorite Grand Slam title in Melbourne with a hard-fought victory over France’s Caroline Garcia, who knocked her out in the first round here last year. Osaka rose, fell, and eventually rose.
Then came another bittersweet ending Wednesday afternoon against Karolina Muchova, a microcosm of the entire journey.
Just when it looked like Osaka’s second, or perhaps third, tennis match would take another disappointing and all-too-familiar turn, she beat Mukova 1-6, 6-1, 6-3, her biggest win since becoming a mother. has been reaped. Summer 2023. This means that he will participate in the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2022 Australian Open.
Muchova, the 20th seed from Melbourne, is a talented rising star who emerged when Osaka was underperforming. She has the kind of all-court game that is becoming increasingly important at the top of women’s tennis. Osaka could not solve this problem with a power base attack. At the US Open in August, Muchova beat Osaka with a volley to get on the next flight out of New York.
“She trampled me when I was dressed in my best clothes,” Osaka told the court. “She’s one of the best players.”
A year and a half has passed since Osaka gave birth to her daughter Shai, and it looks like a lot will happen to her. There’s a new, great coach sitting courtside in Patrick Moratoglou. Monday’s win over Garcia gave him renewed confidence after appearing in his first finals in nearly two years. The fist pumping and slap of the left thigh between the points have a fresh vitality. She may have shown fleeting glimpses of her former self as a four-time Grand Slam winner, but now she has the shining qualities of a player honed for the present and the years to come.
“She got better every game,” Muchova said of Osaka.
“She played great in Australia. I played better the first time. I didn’t let her play. Then it changed.”
On the fourth day of the first major in 2025, Osaka struggled to find an answer to Muchova’s all-court attack from the start. She was down 5-0 after about 20 minutes, despite having opportunities to break Muchova’s serve in a few games. The set disappeared after 30 minutes.
When the set ended, Osaka told herself to believe. In her prime, she had distinct superpowers. She played her best tennis when it mattered most. She always seemed to come up with a huge serve under the T, a hot forehand within inches of the baseline or a squeaky backhand down the sideline when she needed it most.
Most of that was missing during the 13 months of this comeback. For a long time, it seemed like she could hang with the best of the new era post-Serena Williams. Then the big moment comes and she can’t do it.
Osaka said that after the first match, she had a hard time losing focus during the game. She is not a confrontational person, but has said that her job is to fight other people without using punches like a boxer.
“It takes a lot of energy to know that you’re going to go into a fight with someone,” she said.
“For me, that’s my focus. Apparently, once you get there, there’s a lot of yelling and saying ‘come on in’. It’s almost like he’s a different person. By the time I got to that point I was a little overthinking it.
The fire made concentration even more difficult.
“I don’t know how bad it will be or how bad it will get because I’m not there,” she said.
On Wednesday afternoon, she was able to clear her mind for a long time and rediscover that essential superpower. She knew her score was terrible, but she told herself she was only a few points away from getting it close.
“I said to myself, ‘Okay, I’m on my way out now, but I’m going to try to get my foot in the door,’” she said.
“I told myself to just swing. Because that’s my game. I couldn’t hesitate and let her push me around the court. “I also tried to think that way when it came to serving,” he said.
Osaka stepped up the game early in the second set, stringing together a series of deep, downward backhands that sent Mukova sideways and back, and found the kind of groove on her first serve that lifted the spirits of all players.
Naomi Osaka continued to wow in Melbourne on Wednesday. (Hannah Peters / Getty Images)
That power kept Muchova at the back of the court, unable to float forward or unleash a point-ending volley as she does better than anyone else in the game. Here was Osaka, the old bully shaking her opponents in all directions, stretching for serves, leaving them overwhelmed and breathless.
In the third set they went. Now it was Muchova’s turn to try to raise her game to Osaka’s level, perhaps even a level higher. she couldn’t
Osaka earned a crucial break point in Game 5 with a one-two punch from her title-winning days. A forehand pass across the court and a backhand pass along the line. At the crucial moment, Muchova produced a deep backhand that could only be blocked on the backside.
After four games, Osaka once again had three match points. Muchova blasted a return winner and saved two of them, but in the third Osaka dug out a looping lob that floated over the baseline, perhaps with a bit of luck. Muchova attempted a wide lob over her head that Osaka bounced away in glee.
The win gave her exactly what she was looking for. She has said she wants to play more this year than in 2024, but as she said at the start of her comeback, she won’t sit still if she doesn’t get results. Belinda Bencic, another player returning to the WTA tour after giving birth, followed suit.
“I have a lot of respect for all the players on tour, but at this point in my life, unless I’m above a certain rank, I don’t think I’ll be able to play for a while.” She told reporters at the ASB Classic.
“I want to spend time with my daughter if I’m not where I need to be or where I feel like I can be.”
Osaka’s goal last year was to get back into the top 20, or at least the top 32. That way, you’ll be seeded at a Grand Slam and won’t have to play against top players in the early rounds. She finished both goals much lower last year, ranked 58th, and had to cut her season short after retiring at the China Open, trailing 1-1 against Coco Gauff.
She has started this season strong and could see her time in the Australian summer as progress, even if she loses to Mukova again. Osaka was better than Garcia in her first match after a three-month mental health break. She is no better than she was here a year ago.
Mukova is as talented as anyone and can beat any top player on any day. It wouldn’t have been a shame to lose to her after terrible draws at Grand Slams, including against Emma Navarro at Wimbledon and Iga Swiatek at the French Open.
But there is an old Bill Parcells line that is well known to basically every athlete who grew up in America. According to the former New York Giants coach, “The record says you are who you are.”
They have looked almost unbeatable since the beginning of the season. According to her records, she is that person.
(Top photo: Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Associated Press)
