Auckland tournament director Nicolas Lamperin says Naomi Osaka has "unfinished business" at the ASB Classic and admits the tournament organizers were keen on landing the Japanese for their 2026 tournament edition.
In the first week of the 2025 season, Osaka returned to New Zealand for the first time since 2017. And the four-time Grand Slam champion made a lightning start to her Auckland return, reaching her first WTA final since the 2023 Miami Open. In the ASB Classic final, the Japanese took the opening set with a 6-4 scoreline against Clara Tauson. But then, moments later, the 27-year-old suffered one of the most painful endings to one of her matches after an abdominal injury forced her to retire.
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Osaka may have been heartbroken with the way her second Auckland appearance ended, but she still enjoyed her time in New Zealand, and signed up to return to the tournament in 2026.
Auckland tournament director Lamperin: There's some kind of unfinished business for Osaka
She was such a big hit and we all felt like she brought a lot to the tournament, but at the same time, there was some kind of unfinished business. So we wanted to have the opportunity to bring her back one more time and see whether she could potentially go all the way," Lamperin said in a statement.
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Meanwhile, in her own statement, Osaka admitted that she would absolutely love to make a deep Auckland run and position herself nicely for a strong Australian Open campaign.
Having a strong start in Auckland would be important in building the year and heading into the Australian Open.Last year I did pretty well in Auckland and although I had to retire in the final, it definitely gave me a lot of confidence going into Melbourne,"Osaka said.
