Osaka Returns to BJK Cup Duty with Hopeful Eye on Olympics

Olympic return? Naomi Osaka lights the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games in 2021. Jewel SAMAD / AFP/File
Olympic return? Naomi Osaka lights the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games in 2021. Jewel SAMAD / AFP/File
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Osaka Returns to BJK Cup Duty with Hopeful Eye on Olympics

Olympic return? Naomi Osaka lights the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games in 2021. Jewel SAMAD / AFP/File
Olympic return? Naomi Osaka lights the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games in 2021. Jewel SAMAD / AFP/File

Naomi Osaka returns to the BJK Cup for the first time in four years on Friday, optimistically hoping to force her way into the Olympic Games.
The former world number one and four-time major winner has been named in the Japan squad to face Kazakhstan in Tokyo.
It will be the 26-year-old's first appearance in the team competition since February 2020 which means that she hasn't fulfilled the obligation of making it to two ties in one Olympic cycle.
If she is to secure a spot in the Japan team for the Paris Olympics "she'll need to go through the appeals process," a spokesman for the International Tennis Federation (ITF) told AFP.
However, the ITF also reserves a place in each singles draw at the Games to a Grand Slam title winner.
Osaka was absent from the tour from September 2022 until January this year after giving birth to her first child.
At the Australian Open, she was ranked a lowly 831 but a quarter-final run in Qatar followed by back-to-back third round spots at Indian Wells and Miami have lifted her to just inside the top 200 and number four in Japan.
The singles event at the Olympics is limited to 64 players with a maximum of four from each nation.
Osaka has already experienced the Olympics, lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 where she went on to make the third round.
That appearance came just months after she withdrew from the French Open at Roland Garros -- the venue for this summer's Olympics tennis event -- citing mental health issues.
Japan's tie with Kazakhstan on Friday and Saturday will be staged at Tokyo's Ariake Coliseum, the venue for the 2021 Olympic tournament.
"She said that she wants to play, so I'm really happy," local media quoted Japan captain Ai Sugiyama as saying when the team for this weekend was announced.
Eight BJK Cup qualifying ties take place this week with the winners advancing to the 12-team finals in November where they will join hosts Spain, defending champions Canada, 2023 runners-up Italy and wild-card Czech Republic.
World number one Iga Swiatek leads Poland in their tie against Switzerland at Biel.
Swiatek returns to the squad for the first time since the 2022 qualifiers, when she led Poland to a 4-0 victory against Romania.
Eighteen-time champions United States host Belgium in Orlando with their challenge spearheaded by world number five Jessica Pegula.
Ukraine are playing their home tie against Romania in Florida as they attempt to reach the finals for the first time.



Vardy Scores Landmark Goal for Leicester in Final Game for Club

Football - Premier League - Leicester City v Ipswich Town - King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain - May 18, 2025 Leicester City's Jamie Vardy celebrates scoring their first goal with Leicester City's Kasey McAteer. (Action Images via Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Leicester City v Ipswich Town - King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain - May 18, 2025 Leicester City's Jamie Vardy celebrates scoring their first goal with Leicester City's Kasey McAteer. (Action Images via Reuters)
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Vardy Scores Landmark Goal for Leicester in Final Game for Club

Football - Premier League - Leicester City v Ipswich Town - King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain - May 18, 2025 Leicester City's Jamie Vardy celebrates scoring their first goal with Leicester City's Kasey McAteer. (Action Images via Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Leicester City v Ipswich Town - King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain - May 18, 2025 Leicester City's Jamie Vardy celebrates scoring their first goal with Leicester City's Kasey McAteer. (Action Images via Reuters)

Jamie Vardy marked his 500th and final match for Leicester with a farewell goal — his 200th for the club he has represented for exactly 13 years.

The 38-year-old striker scored in the 28th minute to put Leicester 1-0 ahead against Ipswich at King Power Stadium in the Premier League on Sunday.

Vardy ran to the corner flag, pulled it out and raised it aloft before being mobbed by his teammates.

Grabbing a landmark goal is a fitting way to go out for Vardy, a player Leicester has described as its “greatest ever” after he famously helped the team to win the Premier League title in 2016 at preseason odds of 5,000-1. In that title-winning campaign, he netted in a record 11 straight games to inspire one of the great underdog stories in sporting history.

Vardy is still going strong, scoring nine times in this campaign to back up his assertion that he can still play at the highest level. It hasn't been announced where he will play next.

Leicester still has another league game left after that — at Bournemouth on May 25 in the Premier League's final round — but Vardy’s last appearance for the team will be against Ipswich.

Vardy joined Leicester from non-league team Fleetwood Town for 1 million pounds (now $1.33 million) in May 2012 — exactly 13 years ago.