Martina Navratilova gives brutal assessment of Naomi Osaka’s return – ‘Overall a C’
Martina Navratilova did not mince her words when she was asked about Naomi Osaka’s comeback match at the Australian Open, stating that “she is not in shape”.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka skipped the 2023 tennis season as she gave birth to her first child – a daughter named Shai – in July, but not long after she announced she would return to competitive tennis at the start of the 2024 campaign.
In her first event back at the Brisbane International, she won her opening match in straight sets before going down in three sets against fellow former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova.
On Monday she played in her first Grand Slam match since the 2022 US Open and it was always going to be a tough assignment as she was up against the 16th-seeded Caroline Garcia.
Osaka went down 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) in one hour and 28 minutes and tennis legend Navratilova wasn’t really impressed with her performance.
“Tennis-wise, it was maybe a B-plus performance. But overall a C, because she couldn’t get to the ball that she wants to hit because she is not in shape,” the 18-time Grand Slam singles champion told Tennis Channel.
“I am surprised that she started playing, that she got on the tour that she played this tournament without clearly being in the tip-top shape she needs to be in order to put herself in the position to hit the big, big balls.
“She was stretched out way too much and the fact that she didn’t have a break point tells you all you need to know about that match.”
Navratilova was also asked what advice she would give the 26-year-old Osaka and also compared her to fellow mother Elina Svitolina, who gave birth to her first child in October 2022.
The Ukrainian returned to action the following April and reached the quarter-final of the French Open and semi-final at Wimbledon.
“Get more fit, play a lot more sets in practice so that when you play the match ‘you have been there, done that’, but most of all just put in the yards on the court and off the court because the girls hit the ball too hard, you have to be quick off the mark to get to the ball to hit your shit,” Navratilova said.
“She gave birth, we know all that, but Svitolina did too and she looked a lot better off the bat. It is something you can control as long as you don’t have injuries, there is no reason not to get in better shape and then she can win a lot more matches.”
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