"She walked for the first time... It's surreal"- Naomi Osaka delighted as daughter Shai takes her first steps ahead of Japanese's French Open campaign

Naomi Osaka has expressed her delight at her daughter Shai taking her first steps. Right now, the Japanese is in Paris preparing for the 2024 French Open, where she is slated to face Lucia Bronzetti in the first round. Shai has accompanied the former WTA World No. 1 to the French capital as well.

In 2023, with just days to go before the start of the Australian Open, Osaka pulled out of the tournament as she announced that she was pregnant with her partner and rapper Cordae's child. The couple became parents in July and named their daughter Shai.

Osaka made her comeback at the start of the 2024 season at the Brisbane International. While the four-time Major winner is yet to rediscover her finest form, she has shown steady improvement across the nine tournaments she has featured in so far this year. However, Shai did not accompany her to those events.

At a press conference ahead of her first-round match at this year's French Open, Osaka talked about the emotional difficulty she experienced being away from Shai earlier in the season. However, she also laid bare that during her time away from the little one, she made time to call her.

"Being away from her was really tough but I called her everyday. I saw how well she was doing and I saw how happy she was, so that made me happy too," Osaka said.

The former World No. 1 went on to share that Shai had started walking, and described the overall feeling of witnessing her daughter grow as "surreal".

"Yesterday she walked for the first time, so I was really happy about that and we're going to practice some more when I get back but yeah, it's really cool to have her here and just to see how much she's grown and how many things she's doing differently. It's kind of surreal," Osaka added.

Naomi Osaka talked about Shai's curious nature after her Italian Open 4R exit

Naomi Osaka in action at the Italian Open

Osaka's Italian Open run was cut short in the fourth round of the WTA 1000 event by Zheng Qinwen. Following her loss to Zheng, the Japanese told the media how curious Shai is already, despite her tender age. Osaka also said that she would take Shai to iconic places and take pictures of themselves so she can show them to Shai when she is older.

"Shai is a really curious kid. I mean, she's still a baby. She likes to look at things. She probably won't remember, but I would love to take her to all the famous landmarks and take pictures so I can show her when she grows up," Osaka said during a press conference.

If Osaka manages to get the better of Bronzetti at the French Open, she will face either World No. 1 Iga Swiatek or qualifier Leolia Jeanjean.