"She has a lot of energy" - Naomi Osaka gets honest about her daughter Shai's interest in tennis

Naomi Osaka recently spoke about the future prospects of her daughter Shai as a tennis player. The Japanese believe that the one-year-old would excel at the sport due to her positive energy.

Osaka has faced her share of ups and downs on the WTA Tour this year. While the 27-year-old reached her first tour-level final in more than two years at the ASB Classic, her Australian Open campaign was marred by an abdominal strain. She has since not played competitively, having withdrawn from the Abu Dhabi Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Naomi Osaka recently spoke to CNN ahead of her pro-tour return. During the interaction, the topic of her one-year-old daughter Shai came up as the former World No. 1 disclosed that she had bought a "miniature tennis racket" for her. By Osaka's admission, although Shai had taken well to the racket, she was yet to give her a taste of formal on-court training.

"She has a lot of energy, like a lot. I think she’d be a really good tennis player. She’s just the happiest girl," Naomi Osaka told CNN. "She has a miniature racket, so she does pick that up a lot, but I haven’t put her on a tennis court yet."

The four-time Major winner gave birth to her daughter in June 2023 with rapper Corade, whom she has since separated from. The Japanese star's maternity break kept her on the sidelines from September 2022 to January 2024.

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"Made me happy and motivated" - When Naomi Osaka became giddy over receiving a 'good luck' video of her daughter ahead of the big match

Naomi Osaka waves to the crowd at Australian Open 2025 (Source: Getty)

Last January, Naomi Osaka revealed that her team had sent a video of her daughter Shai ahead of her blockbuster first-round match against former World No. 4 Caroline Garcia in Melbourne. Although the two-time Australian Open champion lost, she was admittedly bowled over by the video and wished she could've performed better on-court.

"I mean, I talk to and I think about Shai a lot. Before my match, I got sent a video of her. She wasn't obviously saying good luck, but I got a video of someone saying, 'Shai says good luck.' It was really cute," Osaka told the media following her 2024 Australian Open first-round exit. "It made me happy and motivated, but at the same time a little frustrated because I felt like I should do better with the time I had away from her."

For what it's worth, Osaka reversed the script on Garcia in their Australian Open rematch this year. The Japanese got the better of the Frenchwoman in the first round of the Happy Slam in three sets, before following up with an upset of 20th-seeded Karolina Muchova in another three-set affair. She then retired midway through her third-round match against Belinda Bencic due to an abdominal injury.