![Naomi Osaka](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.sportico.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/GettyImages-1934500776-e1705326508393.jpg?w=1280&h=721&crop=1)
Naomi Osaka’s return to grand slam tennis was short-lived as the former world No. 1 lost her opening-round match at the Australian Open 6-4, 7-6 (2) to No. 16-seeded Caroline Garcia on Monday.
The 26-year-old Osaka—who gave birth to her daughter, Shai, in July—returned from a 15-month break from tennis at the Brisbane International two weeks ago, where she won her first match before falling to Karolina Pliskova.
“I’ve taken a lot of breaks throughout the years,” Osaka said in her pre-tournament press conference. “For me, I think this one is the one that finally clicked in my head. I think being an athlete the time is really precious. I never took that for granted before. I was so young, and I thought I could just roll right back into it whenever I needed to.”
The Australian Open increased its prize money by 13% this year, with early rounds getting the biggest bumps. Osaka will pocket $80,000 as a first-round loser; Garcia is guaranteed at least $120,000 by reaching the second round. The men’s and women’s Australian Open winners will earn $2.1 million each.
Osaka won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021, and she had reached at least the third round in seven or her previous eight appearances at the event. A second-round loss in 2017 was her earliest exit before this year. The experienced Garcia, who has won 11 WTA events, was always going to be a challenge for Osaka.
Osaka became a breakout star after beating Serena Williams to win the 2018 U.S. Open, and she added another Open title in 2020. Brands flocked to Osaka, making her the highest-paid female athlete of all time. She was young (20 at the 2018 Open win), engaging and dominant on the court—all of which helped catapult her earnings.
Osaka, who was born in Japan and raised in the U.S. by her Japanese mother and a Haitian-American father, held dual citizenship but decided to represent Japan in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The country has traditionally showered its biggest sports stars with lucrative endorsement deals, and Osaka was the biggest beneficiary. In 2022, she left IMG to launch her own sports agency, Evolve, with her agent Stuart Duguid. Her annual endorsement earnings topped $50 million in 2022.
She still has more than a dozen endorsement partners, including Nike, Yonex, Tag Heuer, LVMH and Panasonic, but Osaka cut back on her sponsor commitments while pregnant; some deals lapsed and others paused as her world rank sank to No. 831. Osaka still earned an estimate $15 million last year from her partners despite not playing a match; she ranked fifth among the world’s highest-paid female athletes.