Naomi Osaka learning ‘lessons through motherhood’ as daughter takes first steps

Naomi Osaka will be inspired by her daughter at the French Open as she continues taking baby steps on clay.

Former world number one Osaka has been reunited with Shai at Roland Garros and revealed the 11-month-old walked for the first time on Friday.

“I was really happy about that,” said Osaka. “We’re going to practice some more when I get back.

“But yeah, it’s really cool to have her here, just to see how much she’s grown and how many things she’s doing differently. It’s kind of surreal.

“Yeah, I am learning a lot of lessons through motherhood, and I hope that I can remember to apply them on the tennis court.”

Four-time grand-slam winner Osaka, who returned to competing after maternity leave in January, has never progressed past the third round in Paris.

But the 26-year-old, who faces Italian Lucia Bronzetti in the first round on Sunday, did get three clay-court wins under her belt in Rome earlier this month.

“At this point I feel pretty comfortable on clay to the point where I don’t know if I’ll be a little confused my first day back on a hard court,” she added.

“But I also think it’s because I have been in Europe for what feels like a very long time already. But, yeah, I think clay is fun. You get to slide around.”

British number one Katie Boulter faces a tough opener against former world number two Paula Badosa, who has slipped down the rankings due to injuries.

The pair have become close friends, with Badosa saying: “When I was injured, she was checking on me. I think a long time ago she had a similar injury.

“So we are good friends. She’s a nice person. Really happy how she started the year. I think she’s playing very well. She’s a dangerous player.”

Boulter and Badosa have another thing in common – love doubles – with both dating fellow tennis players.

Boulter’s partner is Australian Alex De Minaur while Badosa recently got back together with Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Badosa added: “I think one of the things that I didn’t like or we didn’t like is that it was very public, so now we want to keep things a little bit more on our own.

“I still understand that it’s not going to be easy because we are two public people, and people will ask, but we want to keep it more for ourselves because it’s never easy to combine our careers to that.

“Let’s just try to keep it simple for both of us, because I think it helps and it’s healthier.”