Tennis Champ Naomi Osaka Announces She’s Pregnant, Will Return to Court for 2024 Season

The four-time Grand Slam champ is taking some time off to start a family.

Naomi Osaka.Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Congratulations are in order for Naomi Osaka. The tennis pro announced she is expecting her first child with boyfriend Cordae in an Instagram post on Jan. 11.

The 25-year-old, who is a former world No. 1 and a four-time Grand Slam singles champ, will soon add a new accolade to her currently outstanding résumé: mom.

Osaka shared the exciting news with her 2.7 million Instagram followers by offering up a picture of a sonogram. She captioned her post, “Can’t wait to get back on the court but here’s a little life update for 2023.”

The second slide included further detail. Osaka wrote that the last few years “have been interesting to say the least, but I find that it’s the most challenging times in life that may be the most fun.”

Osaka withdrew from the 2023 Australian Open earlier this week. She addressed her recent months away from the court, adding that her time off has “really given me a new love and appreciation for the game I’ve dedicated my life to.”

She went on to say that she has “so much to look forward to in the future” and joked that “one thing I’m looking forward to is for my kid to watch one of my matches and tell someone, ‘That’s my mom.’”

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The tennis star concluded her announcement by stating that 2023 will be “full of lessons” and that she plans to return to the tennis court in time for the Australian Open next year.

Osaka, who last year was ranked by Forbes as the world’s highest-paid female athlete, was first romantically linked to Cordae, a Grammy-nominated rapper, in 2019.

In an interview last April, she told People that the most important life lesson she has learned is just being present.

“It's easy to lose sight of how far you've come, but I've been prioritizing trying to live in the moment and enjoy the journey,” she said.

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