NEW YORK — Naomi Osaka is back in the semifinal of a major, but this time it feels different — she’s in the final four of a Slam for the first time as a mother.
Speaking after her 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over Karolina Muchova on Wednesday night in the US Open quarterfinals, the 27-year-old reflected on how she was inspired by others moms on the Hologic WTA Tour, and how their success pushed her to get back to the mountaintop.
“I’m really inspired by all the moms on tour,” said Osaka, who gave birth to a girl, Shai, in July of 2023. “I also have this thing of feeling like I’m not doing good enough, or I’m being left behind. And when all the moms came back and they did well kind of off the bat, I sort of felt like there was something wrong with me.
“I know that Belinda [Bencic] made the semis of Wimbledon, so I was just really … I just really felt like I was losing a race in some sort of weird way. That was on my mind, and now I’m here and I feel like a weight’s been lifted off of my shoulders.”
It’s been a challenging couple of years for Osaka, who has been open about her difficult pregnancy, body image issues and mental health struggles. But the four-time major champion has worked her way back into peak playing form this summer, reaching the final in Montreal before her incredible run in New York.
She can identify the turning point of her season (perhaps career?), after a third-round loss to Emma Raducanu in Washington, D.C. in late July. Even though it was another disappointing result, she could feel that the tide was turning and better times were ahead.
“After I played Raducanu, I called a roundtable of my team, and I was just very confused how confident I was in myself,” she said after the match. “Because even though I lost, I just remember telling them, ‘I think I can beat anyone from the baseline still, even though I lost, and we just have to figure out if I have to change my game plan or if I just have to do something new and different.’
“Then obviously Tomasz [Wiktorowski] came in the picture, and we’ve kind of been on a roll since then.”
The two-time US Open champion hired Wiktorowski to coach her — replacing Patrick Mouratoglou — ahead of Montreal, and since then all she’s done is win 11 of 12 matches, including victories over Elina Svitolina, Muchova and World No. 3 Coco Gauff. (Her lone loss in that span was to Victoria Mboko in the Montreal final.)
As thrilled as she is, and as aware of how powerful and meaningful this moment is, the World No. 24 will take time after the tournament to really reflect on how far she’s come.
For now, she has a match to focus on — against American Amanda Anisimova — in the second semifinal on Thursday night. Unfortunately there’s no preferential scheduling treatment for moms.
“I appreciate the journey a lot more now,” she said. “I think when I was younger, I kind of just kept thinking the next one, the next one, the next one. Obviously I would love to appreciate everything right now, but you know, I have a match to play tomorrow. Yeah, they put the mom on last. That’s crazy.”