Naomi Osaka hits practice court to prepare for tennis return at Brisbane Intl.

Former No 1 and new mom Naomi Osaka hit the practice court ahead of the Brisbane International as she prepared for her much anticipated return to tennisOsaka will make her WTA comeback at the tournament which begins Sunday at Pat Rafter Arena A twotime Australian and US Open champion Osaka pulled out of last years Australian Open in Melbourne before later revealing she was pregnantAlso ReadMan City rally for 31 win over Everton Chelsea record rare home winThe USbased Japanese player and her American rapper boyfriend Cordae became parents to daughter Shai in Los Angeles in JulyOsaka has only played one game since the 2021 US Open in New York She was leading Daria Gavrilova 10 at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in September 2021 before the Australian suffered a serious knee injury and had to retire in the matchShes really pumped excited to be back in Brisbane tournament director Cameron Pearson said Wednesday She arrived Christmas morning and was out practicing a few hours later No Christmas pudding for her she was straight into itRafael Nadal is also set to return from injury in Brisbane in a 32man ATP field so strong that Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini and 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem will have to qualify to feature in it Nadal held his first practice session Thursday in BrisbaneThiem made the Australian Open final in 2020 and Berrettini was a semifinalist two years later Both are currently sitting outside the top60 cutoff mark which received automatic entry into the seasonopening eventHolger Rune at No 8 is the highestranked male in the tournament American Ben Shelton and threetime Grand Slam singles champion Andy Murray are also enteredReigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka Elena Rybakina Jelena Ostapenko Victoria Azarenka Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens are in the 54player womens drawThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever