BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — 4-time Grand Slam singles champion Naomi Osaka will make her comeback to tennis on the Brisbane Worldwide warm-up match forward of the Australian Open.
Event officers on Friday confirmed Osaka will contest the Dec. 31-Jan. 7 occasion to begin her 2024 season.
A two-time Australian and U.S. Open winner, Osaka was a shock withdrawal from final 12 months’s Australian Open earlier than later revealing she was pregnant.
The previous tennis No. 1 introduced the beginning of her daughter Shai in July.
“I’m actually enthusiastic about getting again out on court docket and competing. I all the time love beginning my season in Brisbane and may’t wait to return,” Osaka mentioned in a press release. It “will set me up for a superb comeback this summer season.”
Osaka was born in Japan and moved to the USA together with her mother and father when she was 3. She hasn’t competed on tour since an occasion in Tokyo in September 2022, shortly after she misplaced within the first spherical of the U.S. Open.
Australian Open officers introduced final month that Osaka could be within the discipline for the 12 months’s first main beginning Jan. 14.
