“It feels like a dream” – Naomi Osaka her snatching her first victory at Wimbledon in six years. She is over the moon as she beat Diane Parry by 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 in the first round. However, the path has not been easy for the Japanese star. Since she stepped back from the WTA Tour, journey back was filled with confusion, but she “survived” all the obstacles that came her way.

In the presser after her victory against Parry, Osaka remembers watching Wimbledon after Shai was born and took a nostalgic tour back to the time. “It’s funny, Wimbledon was the first tournament I watched after pregnancy and my daughter is turning one tomorrow, so I’m really glad to still be here.” How does Naomi Osaka look at things, like where she was last year compared to making a comeback to the courts this year?

Further, Osaka recalled those days when things were a bit gloomy for her. “I mean honestly before my match I was looking at my photo album and like they have the feature ‘this time last year’. So I was looking at that and I was looking at my photos of myself in the hospital, so it’s really cool to be here,” said Osaka. The 26-year-old tennis star further added, “I think my mindset last year was just trying to survive. I honestly didn’t really know what was going on after I gave birth. But yeah, just trying to piece myself back together.”

Osaka is a champion for mental health conversation in tennis. The Japanese player has faced trouble with mental health in the past, which even caused her to withdraw from the Wimbledon once. However, no challenge stood tall in front of the former number 1 as she managed to rise above and return to smashing winners.

After every trial and tribulation, Osaka believes she has become much stronger now, and she feels her “pain tolerance has definitely increased a lot from that.” Now, she doesn’t really care about other people’s opinions anymore. However, there was a moment after she felt she had been going through the “worst pain” of her life.

“My world turned into a completely different world in one night” – Naomi Osaka sheds light on her hard recovery after childbirth

“Having a baby completely destroys your pelvic floor,” Osaka shared. She revealed she couldn’t get out of her bed and had to roll sideways. It was really a long process, she felt “lonely” and went through a series of emotions during that period. Elaborating on the same, Osaka felt as if her “world turned into a completely different world in one night“. She said people talk about childbirth, but it’s different once someone experiences it.

Naomi Osaka believes every mom is a superhero. It’s just because the Japanese tennis star believes that it was one of “the worst pains” of her life. She felt as if she somehow managed to get through this, then everything else would feel very easy. However, even after giving birth to a beautiful daughter, Shai, she often says that she is a bit worried at times.

“I often worry about if I’m a good mom, but at the end of the day, I realize Shai is my daughter,” said Osaka. All she wants now is to be a good role model for her daughter. She also wants her daughter to be proud of her mother as she shows her how to tackle personal and professional sides of life.