Naomi Osaka won’t ‘hang around’ in potential 2025 retirement hint
Naomi Osaka has hinted that she could potentially retire from tennis should her results not improve in 2025.
Former world No 1 Osaka begins the new season at the Auckland Open, where she is the seventh seed.
The Japanese will play Israeli qualifier Lina Glushko in her opening match of 2025 and is projected to face second seed Elise Mertens in the quarter-finals.
After starting 2024 unranked following the birth of her daughter in July 2023, the four-time Grand Slam champion rose to finish the year as the world No 58.
Despite her rankings rise it was undoubtedly a challenging year for the 27-year-old, who held a 22-18 record for the season – reaching just two tour-level quarter-finals.
And, speaking ahead of her Auckland campaign, the Japanese revealed she was unlikely to “hang around” if there were not significant improvements across the next 12 months.
Osaka said: “I don’t think I’m the type of player that would hang around.
“I have a lot of respect for all the players on tour, but the point of my life that I’m at right now, if I’m not above a certain ranking, I don’t see myself playing for a while.
“I’d rather spend time with my daughter if I’m not where I think I should be and where I feel like I can be.”
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Osaka’s 2024 campaign saw the Japanese commit to a busier schedule, having limited her tournament appearances across 2021 and 2022 before heading on maternity leave in 2023.
The former world No 1 impressed at points but there were near misses for Osaka across the campaign.
Most notably, she failed to convert a match point in a French Open classic against Iga Swiatek, while retiring injured against Coco Gauff at the China Open – her final event of the year.
But, while admitting parts of her year were “very painful”, the former US Open and Australian Open winner admitted she was “excited” to start the new season.
“I think 2024 humbled me, but I also feel like I grew a lot,” she added.
“I worked way harder than I’ve ever worked before. So in that, I guess it was very painful to not get the results I wanted, but I feel like I’m growing and learning and I am really excited for this year.
“I played really good matches. People still talk to me about my Iga match at the French Open, so I’m glad that I was able to give people memories as well.
“Even though I got injured in Beijing, which was my last tournament, I feel pretty optimistic about how that match would have turned out and I am excited to play on hardcourt again.”
