Naomi Osaka is a professional Japanese Tennis player who seemed to have come out of nowhere to take the tennis world by storm. She created quite a stir at the finals of the 2018 US Opens when she beat her role model Serena William’s to win the championship.
Born on October 16 1997, in Chuo-ku Osaka Japan, Naomi Osaka had her education at Broward Virtual School. However, it is the 22-year-old’s superb skills and powerful serve which can reach up to 125 miles per hour that have brought her wide recognition. The rather shy player has won important championships such as the US Opens, the Australian Opens and lots more.
Moreover, her parents and her dogged determination are also responsible for her career success. Special kudos to her father who despite not having any prior knowledge of the game, was able to coach Naomi to become a tennis champion. And also to her mother who worked extra hard to provide the funds needed for her training expenses.
Naomi Osaka Parents and Family
Osaka`s parents are from diverse ethnic nationality and their union was met with strict opposition. Her father Leonard Maxime Francois is Haitian by birth and her mother Tamaki Osaka, is Japanese. She also has an elder sister Mari, who is also a professional tennis player. As a young college graduate from New York, Naomi’s father relocated to Sapporo, Japan in 1990. It was a time when only a few black men lived there and any romantic relationship between a Japanese and an outsider was frowned upon.
Nevertheless, he met and fell in love with Tamaki Osaka who was a student of the high school in Sapporo, Hokkaido capital and has become exposed to modern trends as against the inherent cultural trend in their Japanese community. Their secret relationship was found out when Tamaki’s father wanted her to perform the ‘omai’, a matchmaking ceremony between two people that could possibly lead to marriage, and discovered that she was already dating someone of different racial background.
Due to the objections, they faced from Tamaki’s father, they had to move to the south of Osaka where they continued their relationship. It was there that they had their two daughters Naomi Osaka and Mari Osaka in spite of being excommunicated by Tamaki’s parents. After 10 years in Japan, Leonard moved his family to Long Island in New York with three years old Naomi.
Meanwhile, Leonard began to have the dream of making his family turn out like the tennis family of Serena and Venus Williams after watching the two sisters compete at the 1999 French open and thus begin the domination of world women tennis under the guidance of their father, Richard.
The Osaka’s family relocated to Southern Florida USA so they can make use of better training facilities and Leonard began an ardent tennis lesson programs for his girls based on the blueprint created by Serena William’s Dad. Thereafter, Naomi and her sister began to practice at Pembroke pine public court in Florida while their father furnished them with instructional DVD’s, books and any other materials he could lay his hands on.
Naomi Osaka’s parents also made the decision that she would play for Japan at an early age. They maintained that their decision was born out of the fact that Naomi was raised in a household of Japanese and Haitian culture and not because of any financial motive or gain.
Naomi Osaka’s Career
Naomi Osaka started playing professional tennis when she was just under 16 years. Before the commencement of her professional career, she had competed in the ITF women circuit and played her first qualifying match in 2011 on her birthday. In September 2003, she secured a place at the WTA tour and made her debut in the tournament in 2004. She defeated Caroline Garcia to emerge victorious at the WTA Finals.
In her Grand Slam debut, Osaka reached the third round and also attained similar height in the French Open and the 2015 US Open. She made her breakthrough at the 2016 Torch Pan Pacific Open where she reached the WTA finals but was defeated by the former champion, Caroline Wozniack.
However, she was shot to the rank of top 50 players of the WTA rankings and was voted the newcomer of the year at the 2016 WTA awards. Osaka didn’t win any title during the 2017 season but she defeated some renowned players in the season. She defeated Sarah Horrible Tormo at the 2017 Wimbledon but was kicked out in the third round by Venus Williams.
Furthermore, she defeated defending champion Angelique Kerner in the first round of the US Opens, but her run was ended by Kaia Kanepi. She pulled a similar defeat on Venus Williams on the second round of the Hong Kong Opens in October. But luck ran out on her and she was defeated by the subsequent winner Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarter-final.
In 2018, Naomi Osaka had a win over former world No. 1, Maria Sharapova in the first round of the 2018 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and further clinched the trophy after defeating Russian 20th seed Daria Kasatkina. During the March 2018 Miami Open, her dreams of defeating Serena Williams was accomplished. She defeated her childhood Idol Serena, who was playing her second tournament since returning from maternity leave. It was their ever first meeting.
She repeated the feat during the finals of the 2018 US Opens where she defeated Serena Williams for the second time to be the first Japanese Tennis player (male and female) to win a major tournament.
Now sitting comfortably in the top ten, Naomi Osaka reached the final of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo for the second time but was defeated by Pliskova. She also got to the semi-finals of the Premier Mandatory China Open thus placing her on no. 4 in the world ranking.
The Hawaiian Japanese descent became the first Asian to rank world No 1 in singles after she defeated Petra Kvitova in the finals of the 2019 Australia Opens. She has several endorsement deals with big brands which earned her an estimated $16 million in 2019 alone. Some of the brands include the Japanese vehicle manufacturer Nissan, Nike, Citizens Watch, All Nippon Airways and other potential deals.
Body Measurements
Naomi Osaka’s Body Measurements is 36-14-36. She weighs about 69kg and stands at the height of 5ft 11 inches. She lives in Beverly Hills California and is dating rapper YBN Cordae.
