{"id":29570,"date":"2026-03-22T14:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=29570"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:07:12","slug":"osaka-weighs-clay-court-season-motherhood-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/osaka-weighs-clay-court-season-motherhood-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"Osaka weighs clay court season, motherhood &#8216;dilemma&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Former world No 1 Naomi Osaka said she is considering how best to balance her tennis schedule with motherhood after a 7-5 6-4 loss to Australia\u2019s Talia Gibson in her opening match on Saturday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Osaka returned to the tour in 2024 after a 15-month break following the birth of her daughter and reached the US Open semifinals last year. She withdrew ahead of her scheduled third-round match at the Australian Open in January due to an abdominal injury.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The four-time Grand Slam champion lost to world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Indian Wells pre-quarterfinals this month before another early exit in Miami.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Asked about her plans for the clay season, Osaka said she is weighing the demands of the tour with the time she wants to spend at home.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I feel like this also is a dilemma for me,&#8221; Osaka told reporters.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;For me, my daughter is very important, and I want to be a mom. I want to be the best mom I can, but sometimes I feel like I know what I have to do to become a really good player, and it&#8217;s very difficult.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Because for me, I want to win titles and I want to be the best player I can, but if I have to sacrifice having a lot of time with my daughter, I\u2019d rather not do it.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to play Charleston. I hope I can play Madrid, Rome and then, obviously, the French Open.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Gibson, 21, will play Iva Jovic in the next round on Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15758,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-29570","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Osaka returned to the tour in 2024 after a 15-month break following the birth of her daughter.","published_date":"","news_description":"Osaka returned to the tour in 2024 after a 15-month break following the birth of her daughter.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29571,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29570\/revisions\/29571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}