Two champions, with seven Major titles between them at different stages of their respective careers, are poised to return at the United Cup (Dec. 29 – Jan. 7) after a year-long absence as both were pregnant with their first children – Kerber giving birth to daughter Liana in February, while Osaka welcomed baby girl Shai five months later. Now, they’ll ramp up training over the coming weeks before travelling down under in December to kick off an intriguing 2024 season.
Four-time Major champion Osaka back, as promised
- Britain’s top-ranked players Cameron Norrie and Katie Boulter, as well as Dan Evans and Neal Skupski all confirmed for Team GB
- United Cup announced this month they’d make tweaks: two fewer matches per tie (three rather than five), so less dead rubber contests
- Hurkacz-Swiatek, Tsitsipas-Sakkari, Fritz-Pegula pairings poised to return, Team USA look to defend their title with new opposition in tow
- Adelaide champion Novak Djokovic set to represent Serbia, while Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and French Open quarterfinalist Tomas Martin Etcheverry (Argentina) also among male debutants
Having watched courtside at the US Open last month, one of two Grand Slam tournaments she has won twice before (2018 and 2020), you can’t help but wonder what new mum Naomi Osaka must’ve been thinking of her contemporaries.
This was the first Major since Flushing Meadows four years prior that all eight women’s quarterfinalists were seeded and could’ve been completely different.
Eventual champion Coco Gauff recovered from a set down in three of her first four matches en route, while halting an encouraging run for former world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki – the Dane ending a three-and-a-half year retirement this past summer.
Osaka hasn’t played competitively since a WTA 500 event in Tokyo last September, where she withdrew from a matchup against Beatriz Haddad Maia through illness.
Her pregnancy news came in January, gave birth six months later and has spoken about how time away reinvigorated love for tennis in ways she didn’t expect.
“It really raised my love for the sport, made me realise I’m not going to play forever. I have to embrace the times, I’ve been playing tennis since I was three, don’t think I can predict what I’ll do. I never am able to do that, but it definitely made me appreciate a lot of things that I took for granted.”
The 26-year-old’s sparse schedule will also be a thing of the past, in her words. She played fewer events as poor form – a Miami final run aside – persisted for a former world no. 1 who hasn’t been the same since the French Open controversy in 2021.
She represented Japan at the Olympics and reached R3 there, lost from a set up vs. eventual runner-up Leylah Fernandez at that season’s US Open, before Amanda Anisimova saved match points to produce a similar comeback win at the Australian Open four months later. An extended blip or sign of things to come?
Quickly forgotten as critics and fans move onto the new shiny toy, she’ll look to make up for lost time and regain a sense of championship-level consistency before long.
The player commitment for most teams is still to be ironed out between now and the end of December, but Japan – who didn’t feature in last season’s event – will be represented by her and Yoshihito Nishioka, world no. 49 on the ATP side.
Retirement rumblings disappear as Kerber back too
After sporadic suggestions over recent seasons that she would retire, it has proved the opposite: Angelique Kerber will continue her career into motherhood and as mentioned earlier, probably feel even more motivated in doing so after watching how Wozniacki and Elina Svitolina have returned on tour refreshed this year.
She turns 36 in January and although there are a crop of fearless young women who’ve burst onto the scene in the last twelve months, you can’t buy experience.
Karolina Muchova’s defensive skills and variety helped her reach rarefied air this year – something Kerber prides herself on – while Carolina Garcia’s drop-off from WTA Finals triumph and the momentum Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova has built show quickly things can change as far as form is concerned.
After a rough 2-8 start to the 2022 season, including five deciding set defeats to Swiatek and Elena Rybakina among others, Kerber won the Strasbourg title on clay – her first on the surface for six years – before third-round defeats in consecutive Major events sandwiched between Alize Cornet outlasting her in Bad Homburg.
She’ll be joined in Australia’s team-based event by Olympic champion Alexander Zverev and 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria on Germany’s team, hoping to do far better and have more luck on their side than this past season’s third-placed finish in the Group of Death with Czech Republic and eventual winners USA.
Whatever happens, it’ll be good to have them both back in the mix for a WTA tour already packed with champions, rising contenders, young stars and headline names.
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes hyperlinked
Mo and Sports 