Naomi Osaka’s comeback to tennis, since becoming a mother in 2023, has been impressive in many ways.
But the one thing missing was a truly deep run in a tournament draw.
This week at the WTA event in Auckland, she has put together her best performance in three years.
On Saturday, Osaka beat American Alycia Parks, in a battle of prodigious servers and baseline power, in straight sets to reach her first singles final since the Miami Open in 2022.
That was also the last time she won more than three consecutive matches; in New Zealand she has won four in a row, and stands one win away from her first tournament title since Australian Open 2021.
She faces Dane Clara Tauson in Sunday’s final – her first at WTA 250 level.
“I’ve actually never gotten to the final of the tournament the week before Melbourne, so this is like a career first for me,” said Osaka, the world No.57.
“I think in my head, I’m really happy there’s always constantly things to improve or to get better, no matter how old you are.”
Osaka is a mere 27 years of age, but a long way removed from her career peak of late 2018 to early 2021, a fruitful two-and-a-half year span during which she won all four of her major trophies – including two Australian Opens – and peaked at world No.1.
Still, there have been promising signs since she returned to the tennis tour this time last year.
She began unranked but ended season 2024 inside the top 60, making her one of the sport’s biggest rankings movers.
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Osaka played 40 matches in 16 tournaments in 2024 – her highest number of both since 2019. For the first time in six years she played multiple tournaments in the 250 category, a scheduling decision Australian great Todd Woodbridge felt showed she was “deadly serious about winning more majors”.
“This is a commitment,” he explained. “She has committed to legitimately doing it [her comeback] properly.”
Last year Osaka reached the WTA 1000 quarterfinals in Doha and beat six top-20 players, the highest-ranked being world No.10 Jelena Ostapenko in the first round of the US Open. She also came within one point of stunning world No.1 Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros, before Swiatek roared back to win their second-round encounter.
Swiatek then went on to win her third straight title in Paris, and fourth in five years, but despite the bitter disappointment of letting slip a 5-2 third-set lead, Osaka knew she was progressing promisingly.
“The key focuses that I had were just to have a lot of belief and confidence in myself,” she said after beating Hailey Baptiste in the Auckland quarters.
“I think I put a lot of work in throughout last year and even though the results didn’t show it, I think just continuing to, I guess, try as hard as I can and see where it gets me.”
Osaka, now working with Patrick Mouratoglou, has risen to world No.49 in the live rankings thanks to her run in Auckland.
Her comeback continued to trend in the right direction, and it bodes well for another memorable campaign at Melbourne Park in just over a week’s time.