Osaka Naomi is casting her eye on next year’s Olympic Summer Games Paris 2024.
The four-time major tennis champion will return to the pro women’s singles ranks in Australia next month, and has said her focus will be on the game’s biggest events, including the 2024 Olympics, set to be held at Stade Roland-Garros, the site of the French Open.
“I definitely want to win more Grand Slams and I guess put in more time in [for] the French Open and Wimbledon, and play the Paris Olympics,” she told NHK.
Osaka, 26, gave birth to her first child, Shai, in July. She has not played a professional match since September of 2022.
“I kind of like the feeling of having the responsibility of having to take care of Shai and wanting to show her around the world,” she said. “I feel more like I’m playing for her.”
Osaka became a sporting and cultural icon when she stood up for athletes’ mental health during the 2021 season. She was later selected to light the cauldron for her home Olympics, Tokyo 2020 held in 2021.
Her four major wins – the US Open in 2018 and 2020 and the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021 – have all come on hard courts, giving the former world No.1 an extra challenge for the Olympics, which will be played on clay for the first time since Barcelona 1992.
“I want to be someone that understands the game a lot more,” Osaka said. “In the first chapter of my tennis I kind of got away with just being myself and playing with my instincts.”
