On Sunday, Osaka outlasted 67th-ranked Italian Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 for her first French Open match win since 2021.
Up next could be what amounts to the toughest task these days in women’s tennis: taking on No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the second round, should Swiatek win her first-round match Monday. Swiatek is eyeing a third consecutive trophy at Roland Garros.
Osaka isn’t quite there on clay herself, but she does say she is much more at ease these days.
As any parent knows, being distant from kids while on the road for work is not easy. Especially when the child is as little as Shai is — she will turn 1 in July.
The European clay circuit began more than a month ago for Osaka in Rouen, France, then took her to Madrid and Rome. She lost her opener in Rouen, and her second match in Madrid.
But it was at the Italian Open that Osaka showed signs of having made serious strides on the slow, red surface that is not necessarily kind to her powerful strokes because it slows balls down. She had never won a match on clay against a player ranked in the top 20 until doing so twice there, getting past Marta Kostyuk and Daria Kasatkina along the way to reaching the fourth round.
Her major titles came in 2018-21 and all on hard courts, two apiece at the U.S. Open and Australian Open. She has yet to make it past the third round in Paris or on grass at Wimbledon.
Repeated questions about difficulty on clay contributed to the anxiety and depression Osaka talked about experiencing when she declined to participate in news conferences at the 2021 French Open before withdrawing from the event. That was followed by a series of mental health breaks.
She took more time away while she was pregnant, before returning to Grand Slam action at the Australian Open this January with a first-round loss.
