{"id":643156,"date":"2025-12-19T23:48:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T23:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643156\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T23:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T23:48:13","slug":"naomi-osaka-leaves-evolve-tennis-agency-she-co-founded-after-three-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/643156\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka leaves Evolve, tennis agency she co-founded, after three years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naomi Osaka<\/a>, the four-time Grand Slam champion, has left Evolve, the sports agency she co-founded three years ago.<\/p>\n

Osaka set up the agency with Stuart Duguid in 2022, after her contract with IMG expired at the end of the previous year. Duguid also left IMG to create the new venture, which has since added star names like women\u2019s world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios<\/a> to its roster. Those two will compete in a Battle of the Sexes<\/a> exhibition match in Dubai later this month, which has been criticized for its possible impact on women\u2019s tennis and for Kyrgios\u2019 central involvement.<\/p>\n

In interviews with Piers Morgan earlier this month, Kyrgios and Sabalenka said that the event would be a \u201cshow\u201d and a good advertisement for the sport. Three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur<\/a>, rising American talent Iva Jovi\u0107<\/a>, Germany\u2019s Eva Lys<\/a>, and former world No. 11 Anna Kalinskaya are also on Evolve\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

Osaka confirmed the move with a post on social media Friday. \u201cHi everyone, writing this to say starting in the new year I\u2019ll be parting ways with Evolve,\u201d Osaka wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great run and I\u2019m so grateful for all the memories shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I make my decision on where I\u2019ll go next, you\u2019ll hear it from me. Thank you for supporting me always and I\u2019m so excited for the year ahead!\u201d<\/p>\n

Duguid declined to comment. He and Osaka also co-founded Hana Kuma, which produces a documentary about the player, as well as Kyrgios\u2019 podcast, \u201cGood Trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

The split, which was first reported by Bounces<\/a>, comes at the end of a successful year on court for Osaka. Having won four Grand Slams and reached world No. 1 between 2018 and 2021, she took breaks from tennis first to address her mental health, and then after giving birth to her first child, Shai, in 2023. During that period of success, Osaka became the highest-paid female athlete of all time, after earning over $37 million in prize money and endorsements in 2019 and then over $50 million in 2020, according to Sportico figures.<\/p>\n

She returned for the start of the 2024 season, but endured an up-and down year. In 2025, Osaka achieved more consistent results on hard courts after hiring Tomasz Wiktorowski, ex-coach of six-time Grand Slam champion Iga \u015awi\u0105tek. She reached the Canadian Open final and U.S. Open semifinal, climbing back to a post-childbirth high ranking of No. 14 in September. She is currently ranked No. 16 and will be looking to win a third Australian Open title in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka, the four-time Grand Slam champion, has left Evolve, the sports agency she co-founded three years ago.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,25711,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-643156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-sports-business","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115748910259446563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}