Today I want to talk about Naomi Osaka, one of the best tennis players in the world right now. She was born in Osaka, Japan in 1997 to parents Leonard Francois and Tamaki Osaka, and she has an older sister named Mari. Her father was inspired by Serena and Venus Williams, which lead him to start training his daughters. The family moved from Japan to the US when Naomi was 3, and once they were stateside Naomi spent a lot of time with her sister and dad in tennis training.
Naomi skipped junior level tennis playing to become a pro-tennis player in 2013, and then proceeded to win many competitions. In 2018 she triumphed at the US Open, where she was the first Japanese player to achieve the Grand Slam title. Eventually she was granted the title of world’s #1 tennis player, the first Asian person to do so. Naomi has always played for the Japanese flag, a decision motivated in part by her father because he felt the Japanese would be more supportive than the Americans.
Besides her impressive skills on the tennis court, what I found to be most impactful is her sportsmanship and great attitude towards others. She is famous for inviting a defeated opponent Coco Gauff to do a joint interview, so that Coco would not feel humiliated by the recent defeat.
Naomi has withdrawn from tournaments to protest violence experienced by Black Americans and has spoken out against the rise in Asian hate during the COVID pandemic. She has made notable donations to Haiti for earthquake relief efforts and schools. She has stood up to tournament officials who fined her for not doing a post-game interview, which she felt would harm her mental wellbeing.
At 24 years old she has a whole career in tennis ahead of her. As she has stood up for her personal wellbeing before, I hope that she does not push herself beyond her capacity and continues to encourage others to respect their wellbeing. I look forward to seeing what she can accomplish.
