Naomi Osaka, the first Japanese player to become a Grand slams winner
The world is full of wonderful and talented people. Some people are born with talent where others train hard and achieve a special and extraordinary talent. They use these talents to achieve greatness in life. Push themselves to train hard to make yourself better. One of those hard-working people is Naomi Osaka, a young and cheerful tennis player.
Who is Naomi Osaka?
Naomi Osaka is a professional Japanese tennis player. Naomi Osaka is 3 times grand slams singles winner. She became the number one ranked female tennis player by the women’s tennis association (WTA). She was just 16 years old at that time. She also holds the record of the first Asian player to become the top ranking in singles and is ruling in the US Open.
Naomi Osaka grand slams set a record when she won back to back in the 2018 US open and the 2019 Australian Open. She was also able to become the first Japanese player to win a grand slam.
Naomi Osaka’s parents and family
Naomi Osaka was born on October 16, 1997, in Osaka City, Osaka, Japan. She is the daughter of proud parents Leonard Maxime Francois and Tamaki Osaka. Naomi’s mother is from Japan and her father is from Haiti.
Her parent’s relationship is wonderful and extraordinary. When her Japanese mother’s family came to know about her relationship with her father, a Haitian man, her family called her a disgrace. But their love was real and Tamaki went on to marry Francois. The couple then moved to Osaka and had a wonderful first baby Mari Osaka. Later after just 18 months, they had another baby girl Naomi Osaka. To make life easier in Japan, both sisters took their mother’s last name ‘Osaka’.
At that time, Serena Williams and Venus Williams had participated in the French Open 1999. Naomi’s father was interested in sports and learned about how the William sisters were trained by their own father in tennis. Francois was highly inspired by their story and decided to follow a similar path for his daughters. The family left Japan for the United States when Naomi was just 3 years old.
They settled in Long Island with Naomi’s father’s parents. This was the place where the Osaka sisters started playing tennis. The family again moved to Florida in 2006. Even after moving the sisters never forgot to practice tennis. Osaka sisters would practice during the day time and be homeschooled at night time. Since her father was busy training his daughters, her mom handled the family expenses.
Marie and Naomi both were getting better at their matches. In the series of their matches, Marie would always win. Naomi even stated that it took her 12 years to beat her sister Marie. Naomi still remembers the day when she beat her sister, which she considers the most memorable day of her life. Marie was promising and a great player but she slowed down due to her frequent injuries which left her less likely to play.
Starting of Naomi’s Tennis career
Following the trails of Venus and Serena Williams, Naomi started her career with pro satellite tours. A pro satellite tour is a minor tournament or event where there are a series of tournaments, the successful players are directly declared as a pro. Naomi participated in a pro satellite tour and became a pro in 2013. In 2016, she was welcomed as “Newcomer of the year” by WTA (Women’s Tennis Association).
Naomi played several matches after that. In March 2018, she had her first WTA tour win at Indian Wells, California. In September 2018, she made her next big success by winning the U.S Open. This was the record Naomi Osaka held as the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam title. After Naomi Osaka Grand slams success, she had yet another winning tournament. In January 2019, Australian Open she had a victory coming out on the top. This win also helped Naomi to rank on the world’s No. 1 Asian player, both gender.
Although being raised in the U.S, Naomi always played under the name of Japan. This is because her father believed that Japanese sport would support her more than the U.S sports team, if we look at the support they have got, we can still believe that her father has made a good decision.
Naomi Osaka Coaches till now
Throughout the two Naomi Osaka grand slams wins, her coach was Sascha Bajin. Suddenly she changed her coach to Jermaine Jenkins. There was no public news of why she changed her coach. By 2020, Naomi changed her coach to Wim Fissette and is still under his guidance.
Injuries and troubles
During 2019, Naomi suffered from multiple injuries in her knee. This caused her difficulty in her matches. Naomi couldn’t even pass the first day of the competition in Wimbledon due to her injury.
Naomi in the Olympics
Naomi Osaka was prepared to participate in the 2020 Olympics. The event was due in Tokyo and she was excited to represent Japan in her matches. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event has been postponed to 2021. Despite the postponed event, Naomi is excited as ever for next year’s Olympics.
In 2020, Naomi Osaka competed against Victoria Azarenka and won the 2020 U.S Open.
Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams
Naomi Osaka has admired Serena Williams all her life. She even studied about her when she was in school. Naomi sees Serena Williams as her inspiration and a source of motivation.
At Miami Open 2018, Serena Williams was back in the field after giving birth. Naomi finally got a tournament against Serena Williams, the two were playing furiously in their final round in which Naomi Osaka won the match. During the match, Serena had to go through several penalties which seemed unfair and angered both the audience and Serena herself.
After Naomi’s win, the crowd booed at her. Naomi was deeply hurt and was trying to hide her tears. Serena then firmly placed a hand around Naomi and comforted her. Later Serena even sent Naomi a letter saying “I am, was, and will always be happy for you and supportive of you. I would never, ever want the light to shine away from another female, specifically another Black female athlete.”. Naomi was deeply touched and she responded as “No one has stood up for themselves the way you have and you need to continue trailblazing.”.
Since then their bond has been strong and supportive towards each other.
Naomi Osaka Citizenship
Naomi Osaka was born in Japan. But she was raised both in Japan and in the U.S. This is why she holds both Japanese and U.S. citizenship. However the Japanese law allows a person to have only one citizen, respecting all the support she has from Japan, she decided to keep her Japanese citizenship.
Naomi’s Japanese culture
Japan is a culturally and racially homogenous country. Mixed race people are often discriminated against. Despite their community, Japanese people admire Naomi. Like other Japanese people, Naomi has a manner of bowing to others as respect. Even during her matches, she bows to her opponents which is a genuine gesture to everyone.
Career highlights
| Singles | Winner:
2020 US Open 2019 Australian Open 2018 Indian Wells, US Open Finalist: 2020 New York(western & southern Open) 2018 Tokyo 2016 Tokyo |
| Additional WTA | Finalist:
2015 Hua Hin Japanese Fed Cup 2017-18,2020 |
