Osaka made the most of her recent time in Japan despite being forced to pull out of this week’s WTA 500 in Tokyo.
The 27-year-old visited the Play Academy, which she partners with, to give pickleball a go. But she was quickly left red-faced – her first shot landed straight in the net.
Osaka eventually got the hang of it and even tried an overhead behind the back, receiving applause for her shot. By the end of her visit, she was rallying in doubles.
The four-time Grand Slam champion isn’t the only tennis player who has tried pickleball out. Some have even made the switch between the sports entirely.
After retiring from tennis, former world No. 8 Jack Sock made waves on the pickleball circuit. In his pro pickleball debut, he won a mixed doubles title with Anna Leigh Waters last May.
And in one of his first singles outings, he beat the fourth-ranked player. Meanwhile, Eugenie Bouchard has also jumped between tennis and pickleball after signing a contract to compete on the Carvana PPA Tour.
The Canadian has still been competing on the tennis tour. She reached an ITF quarter-final in Florida earlier this year and played in the Canadian Open qualifying event.
Osaka won’t be following in their footsteps and joining the pickleball tour. The world No. 56 is preparing for 2025 after a back injury derailed her season. She retired from her China Open match earlier this month and later revealed that her back locked up before the match.
But the injury was worse than she initially thought and after pulling out of several WTA events, Osaka has now announced that she will miss next month’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
Speaking during her trip to Tokyo, she said: “I thought I strained my back, but I did an MRI in Beijing, and they said that I bulged a disc in my back and I also raptured abdominal muscles.
“I was practising in Los Angeles in order to play here, but then I took another MRI and it said that I still have tears.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk