Back to basics

On Naomi Osaka's win in Saint-Malo

Naomi Osaka holds the record for the most money earned by a female athlete in a calendar year ($57.3 million in 2021). She is a four-time major champion. She has 2.8 million Instagram followers and she is arguably one of the most recognisable and marketable people in tennis.

But this past weekend she played at the lowest rung tennis tournament on the WTA circuit.

There were only a smattering of fans present at the L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo, with a total purse of $115,000. Osaka took a late entry wild card to the tournament, after a sobering first-round defeat to Lucia Bronzetti at the Masters-level Madrid Open.

Osaka in Saint-Malo | credit: Oxana Semenova/WTA website

Few superstars would take that kind of L and immediately opt to enter a low-yield event on the complete other end of the tour spectrum. Osaka rarely deviates away from tournaments below WTA 500s. But this WTA 125 event came at a time when Osaka needed matches, and so she took her slice of humble pie, made the trip to Brittany and… it paid off. She emerged as the champion, winning her first title since the 2021 Australian Open.

Far more objectively consequential storylines were happening around the tennis world last week. Coco Gauff demolished Iga Swiatek in the Madrid semi-final, taking the match 6-1 6-1 (subverting a head-to-head that Gauff previously struggled so much in). Then Jack Draper emerged as a clay court revelation, reaching the final in the Spanish capital (marking the first time he has achieved more than two consecutive match-wins on the surface). Aryna Sabalenka also captured headlines by winning the title in Madrid.

But Osaka spending the week plying her trade at a small event in the north of France was what stood out to me. The last time she competed at that level or lower was when she was 18 years old, at an ITF 75k in Toyota, Japan, nearly a decade ago. (She reached the semi-finals that time). Her prize for winning in Saint-Malo on Sunday was $15,500 — nearly $8,000 less than what she took home for losing in the Madrid first round. The highest-ranked player she faced was outside the top 100, and yet she still found her way slugging through a couple of three setters, against lesser-known but very keen opponents.

All of that is what makes this past week for Osaka so significant. I think it may be one that we look back on as the moment her comeback clicked. Without the glare of the spotlight, the big arenas or the comfort found at top-tier events in major cities, Osaka found a way to scramble and fight through to win. There’s value in that which goes far beyond the ranking points, prize money or prestige.

“Kinda ironic to win my first trophy back on the surface that I thought was my worst,” she posted after the final. “That’s one of my favourite things about life though, there’s always room to grow and evolve. Thanks to everyone accompanying me on this journey, I know it’s turbulent but it’s also really fun and I’m grateful.”

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Osaka’s status means much has been written about her return to play since the birth of her daughter in July 2023. She was back competing within six months of that, in January 2024, and it has taken her more than a year to recapture silverware — though the Saint-Malo trophy would never have been on her radar.

When Osaka returned to tennis there were maybe unfair expectations that she would slot right back in, as a repeat champion at the Australian and US Open, and one of the most prominent forces in tennis. But that’s not how things have panned out. People forget that, before she went on maternity leave, she also spent a significant period on the sidelines prioritising her mental health. It was never going to be a linear, easy ride back to the top of the sport.

Since coming back, she also had some very difficult draws at the majors, with epic moments like her battle with Iga Swiatek in the second round at Roland Garros last year. That match was a reminder of just how good Osaka is, but she still hasn’t completely regained the killer instinct which helped her lift her level at key moments to win championships in the past.

Osaka herself has felt impatient at times over these past 17 months on tour. For my book Building Champions (which you can pre-order here) I spoke with her former coach Wim Fissette, who spent all of last season with Osaka. He said that she often asked him how his former charge, Kim Clijsters, managed to win the 2009 US Open in only her third tournament back after giving birth. Clijsters remains the only woman in the last 45 years to lift a grand slam singles trophy after childbirth.

There are other new mums making their way back on tour now. Switzerland’s Olympic champion Belinda Bencic won her first tournament within four months of her return this year in Abu Dhabi. At the time she was the first mother to lift a WTA trophy since Elina Svitolina in May 2023.

On Tuesday, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova posted her first match-win in Rome, after four consecutive losses since her comeback began. She said afterwards that she had considered quitting tennis altogether during her maternity leave.

That so many players see a career as a possibility post-pregnancy is a testament to how far things have come, even in the last 15 years. Back in 2009 Clijsters was somewhat of an anomaly, alongside Lindsay Davenport, in opting to have a child midway through her career. They set the groundwork for this generation, were followed by mother and advocate Victoria Azarenka, before Serena Williams took on the baton by reaching four major finals post-childbirth and putting maternity issues at the forefront of the conversation across women’s sport. Now maternity pay (albeit Saudi-funded) exists for WTA players and protected ranking rules help ease them back onto the tour too.

To follow in Clijsters’ major-winning footsteps and achieve something that so few athletes have previously achieved will take something and someone special. For me, Osaka’s Saint-Malo trip was further evidence of the hunger she has to be the one. And that’s a tantalising prospect.

Recommendations

This week, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner returns to the court after a three-month drug ban, at the Italian Open in Rome. Despite his controversial hiatus, when Italy’s golden boy stepped into his pre-tournament press conference he was clapped into the room by some local media. He’ll be back on court this Saturday live on Sky Sports.

Elsewhere, there’s been kit controversy in Ireland (because somehow, in 2025, women athletes are still being policed on what they can and cannot wear). Camogie players from two opposing teams decided to wear shorts — in protest of the rule that the women athletes must wear ‘skorts’ to compete. In the end, their protest was blocked, and the players were not permitted to contest the match until all of them had changed into skorts. But the result has been a huge national conversation around sports kit and the treatment of women athletes. It’s scandalous really that this is still happening, when research has shown that discomfort/feeling unconfident in kit is one of the leading causes of young girls/women dropping out of sport. Here’s an explainer with all the context in the Irish Times.

Recently I’ve been going through a long list of classic sports films and documentaries, which has been a lot of fun. Last week I watched Hoop Dreams, the 1994 documentary which followed the lives of two Chicago teenagers, Arthur Agee and William Gates, with ambitions to play in the NBA. Can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get around to watching it. It’s a classic of the genre for a reason, and just really, really special. I watched it here.

That’s all!

Molly x