Full Breakdown
Naomi Osaka Brings Robbie Ohashi onto Her Team
6/14/2026, 8:58:14 PM
Naomi Osaka Brings Robbie Ohashi onto Her Team
In November 2023, Naomi Osaka’s coach Tomasz Wiktorowski reached out to Chicago-based physical therapist Robbie Ohashi to join Osaka’s support staff. After discussing the opportunity with his wife and two teenage daughters, Ohashi accepted, marking his first role with a top-ranked tennis player following a 13-year partnership with Kei Nishikori.
Background and Career of Robbie Ohashi
Ohashi earned a bachelor’s degree at UCLA and a graduate degree in movement quality at Washington University in St. Louis. After teaching English in Japan, he worked with hammer-throw Olympic bronze-medalist Koji Murofushi, whose agent linked him to Kei Nishikori in 2012. Over the next 13 years he served as Nishikori’s fitness trainer, later expanding to NBA and hockey athletes, founding the Chicago clinic Performance In Motion.
Timeline of Professional Milestones
- 2012 – Ohashi begins work with Kei Nishikori after evaluating the Japanese tennis player.
- 2012-2025 – Serves as Nishikori’s primary fitness trainer for 13 years.
- Late 2023 – Receives call from Osaka’s coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.
- Early 2024 – Starts six-month trial with Osaka ahead of Roland Garros.
- 2025 – Nishikori retires, concluding their partnership.
Movement-Focused Physical Therapy: Principles and Application
Ohashi’s approach centers on mastering core movement patterns—such as squatting to sit and stand—before adding sport-specific drills. He likens the process to building a house, where a solid foundation supports later refinements, including surface-specific adjustments for hard courts, grass, or clay. For Osaka, he emphasizes refining split-step mechanics on clay.
Official Summary of Ohashi’s Statements
Ohashi states that efficient, foundational movement enhances durability, confidence and an athlete’s performance ceiling. He warns that prioritizing advanced techniques before establishing basics can impede progress. He also argues that the term “comeback” after childbirth perpetuates outdated narratives and should be retired in favor of viewing post-parenthood performance as a continuation.
Why It Matters / Impact
Introducing a movement-centric therapist to a top-ranked player may reshape injury-prevention strategies and surface adaptation in elite tennis. Ohashi’s call to drop the “comeback” label could influence broader discourse on female athletes’ career trajectories after motherhood, promoting normalization over exception.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
Sources do not specify the exact injury or performance metric Osaka is addressing, nor provide data on outcomes from Ohashi’s interventions. The reported 2025 retirement date for Nishikori also appears inconsistent with the present timeline, leaving chronology unclear.
Verbatim Quotes
- “I thought I was done,” Ohashi laughed. — Robbie Ohashi, Physical Therapist
- “But I really believe in who Naomi is and what she represents. So I was like, I’ll give it a shot.” — Robbie Ohashi
- “I can’t wait to get you moving on clay.” — Robbie Ohashi, speaking to Naomi Osaka
- “It almost feels like a blind date, where in the first five minutes you’ll know if it’s a fit or not.” — Robbie Ohashi
