The world of tennis received a shocking announcement via Twitter on Wednesday. It was the post made by Naomi Osaka saying that she is pregnant, so she will not play in 2023. She also discarded a retirement by adding that her return is already projected to be in the 2024 Australian Open.
Osaka has been one of the faces of the WTA for the last couple of years. Her rise in the sport took the Japanese player all the way to the top starting in that famous final against Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open. She was able to win three more Grand Slams, another US Open in 2020 and the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021, but some off-field issues stopped her progress.
The former world’s n°1 has been far from her peak lately. Although that gave her time for other personal projects such as creating a representation agency. Now the most important thing will be her pregnancy, which also means being out for the whole year.
How many points will Naomi Osaka lose by not playing in 2023?
Surely the main focus for Osaka will be her personal life, but that will also impact her WTA status when she returns next year. She is currently the world’s n°47, which is going to decrease until she can play again.
Her 2022 was not a great season. Since she ended the streak of winning at least one Grand Slam every year since 2018, there aren’t a ton of points at stake. Specially given how much she struggled in all the majors, even not participating in Wimbledon. Osaka already lost 110 points for not defending last year’s semifinal at Melbourne Summer Set 1.
In total there will be 1012 points from now on that she won’t be able to defend. The main hit will be after the Miami Open, where she is set to lose the 650 points received for reaching the final. They will not be that many because Osaka last played a tournament in September.