{"id":414894,"date":"2026-01-18T12:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T12:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/414894\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T12:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T12:33:08","slug":"naomi-osaka-speaking-for-herself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/414894\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka, Speaking for Herself"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 I\u2019ve been interviewing Naomi Osaka for just over a decade now; it was at the Australian Open ten years ago when I first profiled her for <\/a>The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Osaka, now 28, has grown up a lot since then, and this recent off-season showed it in a new way: the four-time major champion retook control of her career by breaking away from Evolve, the agency of which she\u2019d been a highly-touted co-founder in 2022 alongside her longtime agent Stuart Duguid.<\/p>\n

I broke the news of Osaka leaving Evolve on <\/a>Bounces<\/a> last month<\/a>, including the detail that she would be returning to her previous management company, IMG. For more background on her history with Evolve, the prior post I did has lots of details:<\/p>\n

\"Breaking:Breaking: Naomi Osaka to Leave Evolve<\/a><\/p>\n

Osaka confirmed the news a day later<\/a> on her Instagram, and then announced her IMG return a few weeks later<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until Osaka sat down for another interview with me on the eve of this year\u2019s tournament\u2014this time for Bounces\u2014that she shed any light on her reasons for leaving Evolve, and how she felt what was \u201cpromised\u201d was ultimately not delivered at an agency that was never really hers\u2014despite its ostensible girlboss raison d’\u00eatre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are just some things that I disagreed with. And having your name so publicly attached to something, and then like every decision they make, I don\u2019t have control in that\u2014it was just really stressful for me.\u201d \u2014Naomi Osaka<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Naomi Osaka at the 2026 Australian Open. (Photo by Cal Sport Media)<\/p>\n

Osaka and I also discussed some lighter topics, including her newly rekindled friendship with Taylor Townsend, her move back to the East Coast after years in L.A., and her thoughts on the possibility of a Heated Rivalry in men\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n

16th-seeded Osaka, a two-time champion at the Australian Open, will play her first round match on Tuesday against 65th-ranked Antonia Ruzic.<\/p>\n

To read our whole interview as well as a look ahead at matches to watch on Day 2 of the Australian Open in this 2,800-word post, please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben<\/p>\n

Give a gift subscription<\/a><\/p>\n

Get 20% off a group subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 I\u2019ve been interviewing Naomi Osaka for just over a decade now; it was at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-414894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}