Naomi Osaka opens up.(Image via Getty Images) Naomi Osaka, the four time Grand Slam singles champion, and former world No. 1, has been gearing up to face world No. 68 Maria Timofeeva in the 2026 China Open. As Naomi Osaka focuses on her performance, her comments on how she managed her mental health with her professional career has resurfaced.
Naomi Osaka reflects on how struggling with her mental health changed how she viewed her profession even as she had a stellar career
A few months ago, in an interview with Elle Canada, Naomi Osaka reflected on struggling with her mental health as she said, “It has changed my relationship with tennis a lot. Being an athlete is kind of funny; I used to value my worth on winning matches—that’s what I’d base my mood on for the day.”The former World No. 1 tennis champion added, “But coming to understand that I am more than winning a match has been really helpful to me, as has understanding that the people around me care about me and would care about me even if [I weren’t] a tennis player.”For the unversed, following her first major victory against Serena Williams at the 2018 US Open, Naomi Osaka began experiencing “long bouts of depression”.In many of her interviews, the four time Grand Slam singles champion reflected how she struggled to manage sudden global fame, combined with a fear of disappointing others, placed intense emotional stress on her.
Naomi Osaka weighs in on how losing in tournaments affected her
In the same interview, Naomi Osaka also reflected on losing as she added, “Losing is definitely not the best. But you learn a lot more from losses than wins, so I try to see the positive in that and understand that there will be a new day, a new tournament where you can try again. It’s about picking yourself up from where you left off. At this point, I have gotten used [to losing], but I’m also really competitive. After coming back from pregnancy, I put a lot of pressure on myself—there were a lot of weeks when I was away from my daughter, so I wanted it to amount to something.”The tennis star added, “That [made losing] much harder than before I had my daughter, and I had to learn to be okay with it again. I think I’m now at that point.”Despite struggling with her mental health for years, Naomi Osaka has had a pretty stellar career in tennis and is easily one of the legendary athletes in the world.For now, all eyes remain on her as she is scheduled to face world No. 68 Maria Timofeeva in the 2026 China Open after winning the championship in 2019.
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