Japan's Naomi Osaka says she is 'at peace' with herself ahead of first match since Australian Open exit

Naomi Osaka will return to Indian Wells with renewed peace and focus after a difficult 2021 season and an early at the Australian Open. The four-time Grand Slam champion, who broke into the top ten of the WTA rankings with her first career title at Indian Wells in 2018, will face America’s Sloane Stephens in a first-round match on the prestigious hardcourts of the California desert. Ad/> The 24-year-old is set to take to the court for the first time since January, where she lost in the third round of the Australian Open to America’s Amanda Anisimova, a loss Osaka says helped reframe her thinking.

ATP Indian Wells doublesDjokovic confirms he will miss Indian Wells and Miami events16 HOURS AGO “Honestly, I feel like I’m at peace with myself, which I think is a great feeling to have as a person,” Osaka said on Wednesday. /> “For me, the biggest focus this year is, of course, I want to do well in every tournament,” she added. “But I think just knowing that I tried as hard as I could and I enjoyed myself … I felt the difference in Australia.

“I actually left the court thinking, ‘You know what, I did my best.’ And I had match points. That was pretty good.” After a quiet 2021 campaign, including an absence for mental health reasons, Osaka dropped out of the top 80 in the WTA rankings as she was defending title-winning points from the previous year. For the first time since 2018, Osaka missed out on a top ten spot in the rankings in October last year following a third-round exit from the 2021 US Open.