Naomi Osaka's comeback is a rallying cry for mums at Australian Open

This time last year, there were high expectations for Naomi Osaka.

It was her first grand slam tournament since giving birth to her daughter Shai.

But 2024 wasn't what she hoped. It was a year that "humbled" the four-time major champion.

She had a series of early exits from major tournaments — despite the bright spark of an almost-upset against eventual French Open champion Iga Świątek at Roland Garros.

But Osaka is ambitious and has her eyes set on winning a new haul of grand slam titles.

The 27-year-old's victory against Caroline Garcia last night was a key first step, with Osaka avenging her first-round loss against the same opponent in her comeback last year.

"Obviously being a mum has changed me quite a lot," she said after the win.

"I hope that I focus a lot more on the court with the time that I have."

Naomi Osaka overcame a familiar foe and deja vu in her victory over Caroline Garcia. (Getty: Shi Tang)

Osaka is just one of a growing cohort of mothers returning to the women's tennis tour after childbirth — demonstrating a shift away from a trend where elite athletes felt they had to retire to start a family.

"More women are returning to elite sports after childbirth," said academic Brooke McGregor, who has studied elite runner mothers.

Researchers say Osaka and athletes like her are paving the way for a future generation of women — but these comebacks are not without their challenges.

Sports physiotherapist Professor Dierdre McGhee, a member of the Hologic WTA Women's Health Taskforce and an academic at the University of Wollongong, said female athletes had to weigh up agonising choices their male counterparts did not face.

"Peak performance and peak fertility unfortunately fall at the same time," she said.

Which mothers have won grand slams?

Osaka is aiming to become the first mother to win a grand slam in more than a decade.

It's a colossal feat, but not unheard of.

Margaret Court won three majors as a new mum in 1973 — the Australian Open, the French Open and the US Open.

Trailblazer Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon in 1980, the first and only mother to win the title in the Open era.

Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon as a mother in 1980. Ash Barty left the sport as the world number one and had a baby shortly after. (AAP: Joel Carrett)

Since then, the only mother to claim grand slam glory was Kim Clijsters.

She clinched an historic victory at the US Open in 2009 after giving birth to her daughter Jada in 2008, and was the first unseeded woman to win the tournament.

She defended her title in 2010 and went on to win the 2011 Australian Open too.

In fact, Clijsters was more successful at grand slams after childbirth — winning three of her four titles as a mother.

Kim Clijsters, pictured with her daughterJada, enjoyed grand slam success quickly after giving birth, prompting commentators to ask if she skewed expectations. (Getty Images: Rob Tringali)

Serena Williams won her final grand slam at the Australian Open in 2017, while pregnant with her first child.

She never won another one — although she came achingly close, making it to four major finals.

Victoria Azarenka, who exited in the first round yesterday, also came close, when she made the US Open final in 2020 about four years after giving birth to her son Leo.

But comparing new mums and their timelines isn't always fruitful.

"Not all pregnancies and births are going to be the same," said Professor McGhee, adding the health of the baby could also impact the parent's return to training.

Serena Williams suffered a near-fatal pulmonary embolism and childbirth complications that left her bedridden for six weeks.

In contrast, Osaka was able to begin training 15 days after giving birth.

Serena Williams won the 2017 Australian Open against her sister Venus. (AAP Image: Tracey Nearmy)

Professor McGhee said pregnancy caused changes to the abdominal wall, pelvic floor, breasts and ligament laxity.

"It's not just one part of her body that is affected, it's recovering from like a multi-body area trauma" she said.

"You wake up after having a baby … and you feel like, 'I've been hit by a bus'."

Other factors that contribute to a player's postpartum career, such as their age at the time of giving birth and their comeback, Mrs McGregor said.

Serena Williams was in her mid-30s when she had her first child; Clijsters was in her mid-20s, as was Osaka.

"Research suggests that the ability to return to and surpass previous performance levels is influenced by the timing of the pregnancy in relation to the athlete's peak performance age," Mrs McGregor said.

Who are the other mums on tour?

Swiss player Belinda Bencic celebrated her first win at a grand slam since returning from maternity leave in stunning fashion yesterday, with a straight-sets victory against 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko.

She gave birth to daughter Bella in April last year, returning to the tour six months later in October.

Belinda Bencic defeated Jelena Ostapenko in her first grand slam match since giving birth. (Getty: Darrian Traynor)

In a recent interview with The Athletic, Bencic said she was inspired and felt brave to tackle parenthood because of those that came before her.

"[I'm] happy with how the comeback is going so far," she said after her win yesterday.

"Sometimes I put too much pressure on myself. Now I feel like it's a bit easier to play because, yeah, there's something more important than tennis."

While there's often a focus on the negative sides of returning to elite sport and the body "bouncing back", Professor McGhee said there were positives too, often in the mental health space.

Other athlete mothers she's worked with echoed similar sentiments to Bencic.

"They cope with stress better, they're more resilient, their mental health is better, so they feel stronger," she said.

That seemed to be the case for Ukrainian player Elina Svitolina, who had a spirited string of wins at Wimbledon nine months after giving birth to her daughter Skai.

"She doesn't care about win or lose, she's just there for love and hugs," Svitolina said in an interview last year.

She said she felt more composed on the court since becoming a parent and that her playing style had become more aggressive.

"I feel like I came back as a different player."

Elina Svitolina says motherhood and the war in Ukraine have changed her attitude to tennis. (AP: Mosa'ab Elshamy)

American Taylor Townsend is another mother on the tour.

She celebrated a career high point by winning a Wimbledon doubles title last year, and has previously talked about taking advice on the motherhood juggle from Williams and Clijsters.

How two tennis greats helped Taylor Townsend juggle motherhood and her professional career Photo shows An American female professional tennis player hits a forehand. After winning her first-round match at the Australian Open, Townsend revealed the advice Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters gave to help her navigate her tennis career while being a mother to a young son.

German Angelique Kerber made a brief comeback last year, and Caroline Wozniacki also returned to the tour.

Kerber, a former Australian Open champion, retired after the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Since 2019, players returning from a maternity hiatus can use a protected ranking to enter a set number of tournaments, whereas when Clijsters and Williams were making their comebacks, they had to do so unseeded.

While the innovation is welcome, researchers say more can be done to support breastfeeding and childcare, as well as steps from sponsors to ensure players are not financially punished for taking time away from the game.

Agonising decisions

Then there are the players who aren't mothers yet, but want to be.

Tunisia's Ons Jabeur was heartbroken after losing two Wimbledon finals in a row. (AP: Alastair Grant)

Tunisian Ons Jabeur has been open about desperately wanting to win a grand slam, a milestone she wanted to reach before starting a family.

She was devastated at losing consecutive Wimbledon finals, saying her and her husband "cried like babies" after the 2023 match.

"That loss was very difficult because it was connected to me being a mother and having a family. So that was an extra sadness for me," Jabeur told The Guardian last year.

Former Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins, who announced her retirement at the start of last year to start a family, revealed she would instead continue playing after facing fertility issues.

"Things have not gone as planned," she said.

"Dealing with endometriosis and fertility is a massive challenge for many women and something that I am actively traversing, but I am fully confident in the team I am working with. It is just going to take longer than I thought," she wrote on Instagram.

Ash Barty retired at the top of her game and started a family shortly afterwards, and is currently pregnant with her second child.

Daria Saville says she didn't face many side-effects from the egg-freezing process. (Getty: Robert Prange)

In November last year, Australian Daria Saville shared a snippet of her egg-freezing journey on Instagram, with videos of her injecting herself and in a hospital gown for egg retrieval.

"My sports doctor made sure all the medications I was taking were not banned by anti-doping," she said in the video.

Professor McGhee said the WTA Women's Health Taskforce advised on everything from supportive bras to fertility and egg-freezing.

"If you want to freeze your eggs, you should be doing it in your 20s, not your 30s. How do we time that so that it doesn't interrupt competition, because that's still going to affect your body?" she said.

Professor Deirdre McGhee specialises in breast health and sports bras. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)

Even Aryna Sabalenka, who is chasing a three-peat at this Australian Open, surprisingly brought up the topic of retirement and family planning in an interview on Sunday.

"I'm 27 this year, oh my god," she said, stressing she was nine years older than teen phenom Mirra Andreeva.

"Being a professional athlete, I'm kind of really close to my retirement, can you believe that? Twenty-seven. People retire at, like, 30."

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus says ideally she'll take time off in future to have a child and come back to tennis. (Getty: Robert Prange)

When asked when she wanted to retire, the world number one was unsure.

"I don't know, it's a tough question. I hope I will have a family, a lot of kids, I want to have kids. And I don't want to have my first kid at 35, you know?"

"The way I see it, I really want to have a kid and come back, I want my kid to see how hard you should work in life to get things."

Professor McGhee said Osaka and others were "pioneers" who would help shape future advice about when to return to the sport and how to train at high-intensity.

ABC Sport Daily podcast ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that's making headlines. "Women like Naomi who have had a baby during their career and returned back have given hope and inspired other women to go, 'Well, I could do that… I don't have to sacrifice family for my career.'"

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