Mari Osaka Retires At Age 24

Mari Osaka announced that she will be retiring from tennis at age 24. Mari is Naomi Osaka’s older sister. She had been primarily playing ITF tournaments in recent years.

Mari Osaka reached a career-high ranking of 280 in 2018. She could not achieve the kind of success that her younger sister did on the women’s tour. In an Instagram post, Osaka said that she didn’t enjoy playing the sport.

I am retired from playing tennis. It was a journey which I didn’t enjoy ultimately but I’m grateful for all the memories and support I’ve gained and received over the years from the sport. I’m moving on now so you can look forward to new fun projects upcoming in the future.

Mari Osaka

In 2019, Mari Osaka made her main draw debut at the Miami Open courtesy of a wild card. The wild card attracted a lot of controversy at the time as many felt that it was awarded due to the influence of Naomi Osaka.

Siblings of top players often struggle on the professional circuit. Novak Djokovic’s brothers, Marko and Djordje, have not had much success on the tour and have had to rely on wildcards to get into ATP tournaments.

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Roger Federer Shows Off On’s Tennis Shoe Prototype

Roger Federer has been practicing with On tennis shoes in Doha. We have known for some time that Swiss shoe brand, On has been working on a tennis shoe. 

Roger Federer split with his longtime sponsor Nike and signed up with Uniqlo in 2018. But he continued to wear Nike shoes since Uniqlo doesn’t make tennis shoes. Federer reportedly paid for Nike shoes himself.

In  2019, Roger Federer became an investor in the Swiss shoe brand, On.  On and Federer have expressed interest in making tennis shoes. But building a good tennis shoe, especially one that Federer can wear on a tennis court,  is no easy task.

Federer returns to tennis this week in Doha after a long break from tennis. He underwent multiple knee surgeries and hasn’t played in almost a year. 

When Federer was asked about the On shoes in Doha. The shoes are still a prototype.

The break gave me time to make the project go forward. You cannot build a shoe overnight. I trained with On shoes here in Doha, let’s see if I’ll wear them on Tuesday (for the opening match). So far it looks perfect. It’s still a prototype. It’s exciting

– Roger Federer

We will find out on Tuesday if Federer takes the court with On shoes. The shoes seem further along in development than we had believed. 

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