Naomi Osaka has made an impressive return to win her first WTA Tour match after 517 days with a dazzling 6-3 7-6(9) victory against German Tamara Korpatsch at the Brisbane International, here on Monday.
After dominating the first-round match early, Osaka was forced to dig deep to secure a straight-sets win.The former world No.1 squandered a 5-3 advantage in the second set and had to save two set points in a fiercely contested tiebreak, before eventually closing out the match in one hour and 48 minutes.
It is Osaka’s first match and win since having daughter Shai in July 2023.“It feels really good to be back,” the four-time Grand Slam champion told an adoring crowd today at Pat Rafter Arena.“I was super nervous, but I was really excited to be out there,” Osaka said.
A radiant Osaka savored the moment, taking selfies and signing autographs with her many fans before leaving the court.“I feel like the last couple of years that I played, before you know I had my daughter, I didn’t return as much love as I was given, so I really feel what I want to do in this chapter,” Osaka explained.
“I just really appreciate people coming out and people knowing me and cheering for me, because there was a time where I was just a little kid trying to watch my role models play, so it feels really surreal sometimes to be playing on these courts.”
Osaka’s victory sets up a tantalising second-round showdown with another former world No.1, Czech Karolina Pliskova. Pliskova is a three-time champion in Brisbane and has won 16 of her past 17 matches at the tournament. This includes a three-set semifinal victory against Osaka, where she saved a match point, during her title-winning run in 2020.