Naomi Osaka says she has thought about quitting tennis
Naomi Osaka says she has thought about quitting tennis, and she has named the one request that would make her stop. She said she would walk away if her three-year-old daughter, Shai, asked her to travel less. BBC Sport Her comments were published on Sunday, 25 October 2026.
Osaka said she often wonders how long she will keep playing. She also said Shai is her biggest priority. Even so, she believes she is "not far off" the form that won her four Grand Slam titles. Grand Slams are the four biggest tournaments in the sport, held each year in Australia, France, Britain and the United States.
Osaka won the US Open and the Australian Open twice each between 2018 and 2021. She has also risen to world No. 1, the top spot in the rankings. Her career has included long breaks. In 2021 she stepped back to look after her mental health. Later she took 15 months away after becoming pregnant, and she returned in 2023 following Shai's birth. In 2025 she reached the semi-finals of the US Open.
Her next event was the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She is ranked 19th in the world and was seeded seventh there. Seeding is a system that places stronger players apart in the draw, so they are less likely to meet in the early rounds. Osaka was scheduled to open against Jasmine Paolini, who is ranked in the top tier of the women's tour.
For fans, the headline is not a retirement announcement. Osaka has not said when, or whether, she will stop. What she has offered is a clear picture of what matters to her now. Tennis is still part of her life, but it sits behind her daughter.
That is a tension many players with young children know well. Travel is the hardest part of the job. Weeks on the road, time zones and tournament schedules all pull against family life. Osaka has framed her choice in simple terms, and that makes the question of her future easier to follow than most.
Whether she keeps playing will depend on how her results go and how her family life settles. For now, the next time she steps onto a court, the scoreboard will tell its own story.
