Naomi Osaka (大坂 なおみ [o̞ːsäkä näo̞mi], Ōsaka Naomi, born October 16, 1997) is a professional tennis player who represents Japan. Osaka has been ranked No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. She has won five titles on the WTA Tour, including two titles at both the Grand Slam and Premier Mandatory levels. Osaka won her first two Grand Slam singles titles in back-to-back Grand Slam tournaments at the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, and is the first player to achieve this feat since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.
Born in Japan to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, Osaka has lived and trained in the United States since she was three years old. She came to prominence at the age of sixteen when she defeated former US Open champion Samantha Stosur in her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 Stanford Classic. Two years later, she reached her first WTA final at the 2016 Pan Pacific Open in Japan to enter the top 50 of the WTA rankings. Osaka made her breakthrough into the upper echelon of women’s tennis in 2018 when she won her first WTA title at Indian Wells. Later in the year, she defeated 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams in the final of the US Open to become the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Osaka is known for her multi-ethnic background and her shy, candid personality. With her diverse background and status as a Grand Slam singles champion, she is one of the most marketable women athletes in the world and was the highest-earning female athlete in endorsement income in 2020. On the court, Osaka has an aggressive playing style with a powerful serve that can reach 125 miles per hour (200 km/h).
EARLY LIFE AND BACKGROUND
Naomi was born on October 16, 1997, in Chūō-ku, Osaka in Japan to Tamaki Osaka and Leonard François. Her mother is from Hokkaido, Japan, and her father is from Jacmel, Haiti. She has an older sister named Mari who is also a professional tennis player. The two girls were given their mother’s maiden name due to the Japanese Family Registration Law (Koseki) (a foreign spouse must join the Japanese partner’s koseki and children are registered under that Japanese spouse’s surname). Osaka’s parents met when her father was visiting Hokkaido while he was a college student in New York.
When Osaka was three years old, her family moved from Japan to Valley Stream, New York on Long Island to live with her father’s parents. Osaka’s father was inspired to teach his daughters how to play tennis by watching the Williams sisters compete at the 1999 French Open. Having little experience as a tennis player himself, he sought to emulate how Richard Williams trained his daughters to become two of the best players in the world, despite having never played the sport. François remarked that, “The blueprint was already there. I just had to follow it”, with regard to the detailed plan Richard had developed for his daughters. He began coaching Naomi and Mari once they settled in the United States. In 2006, Osaka’s family moved to Florida when Naomi was eight or nine years old so that they would have better opportunities to train. Naomi practiced on the Pembroke Pines public courts. When she was 15 years old, she began working with Patrick Tauma at the ISP Academy. In 2014, she moved to the Harold Solomon Tennis Academy. She later trained at the ProWorld Tennis Academy.
Although Osaka was raised in the United States, her parents decided that their daughters would represent Japan. They said, “We made the decision that Naomi would represent Japan at an early age. She was born in Osaka and was brought up in a household of Japanese and Haitian culture. Quite simply, Naomi and her sister Mari have always felt Japanese so that was our only rationale. It was never a financially motivated decision nor were we ever swayed either way by any national federation.” This decision may have also been motivated by a lack of interest from the United States Tennis Association (USTA) when Naomi was still a young player. The USTA later offered Naomi the opportunity to train at their national training center in Boca Raton when she was 16 years old, but she declined.
PROFESSIONAL CAREER
2011–15: WTA Tour match win at age 16, top 150
Osaka never competed on the ITF Junior Circuit, the premier international junior tour, and only played in a small number of junior tournaments at any age level. She instead skipped to the ITF Women’s Circuit and played her first qualifying match in October 2011 on her 14th birthday. She then made her professional main draw debut in doubles at her next tournament in March with her sister Mari. Meanwhile, she did not qualify for her first singles main draw until July in her seventh such attempt. Her best result of the 2012 season came at the ITF $10K event in Amelia Island, where she lost to her sister in the semifinals. Osaka has never won a title at the ITF level, only managing to finish runner-up on four occasions. Her first two finals came at the $25K level, one of which was in June 2013 in El Paso, Texas. The other was in March 2014 in Irapuato, Mexico and included a victory over her sister.
In September 2013, Osaka turned professional shortly before turning 16 years old. She entered her first two qualifying draws on the WTA Tour that same month at the Challenge Bell in Québec and the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. The latter event was her first opportunity to compete professionally in Japan. The following summer, Osaka qualified for her first WTA main draw at the 2014 Stanford Classic. In her tour level debut, she upset world No. 19 Samantha Stosur in a tight match where she saved a match point in the second set tiebreak and came back from a 5–3 deficit in the third set. She was still just 16 years old and ranked No. 406 at the time. Osaka also won a match as a wild card at the Japan Women’s Open, her only other WTA main draw of the year. These victories helped her progress into the top 250 of the WTA rankings before the end of the season.
Despite not winning another WTA main draw singles match in 2015, Osaka continued to climb up the rankings. She reached her two highest level ITF finals, the first at the $75K Kangaroo Cup in Japan and the second at the $50K Surbiton Trophy in the United Kingdom. Following these runner-up results, Osaka was ranked high enough to enter qualifying at the last two Grand Slam singles events of the year, Wimbledon and the US Open. She won her first match at the US Open, but was unable to qualify for either main draw. Nonetheless, Osaka had a strong finish to the year. In October during the WTA Finals, she won the Rising Stars Invitational four-player exhibition tournament, defeating heavy favorite and world No. 35 Caroline Garcia in the final. Continuing to play in November, Osaka then reached the biggest final of her career at the WTA 125K Hua Hin Championships in Thailand. After a semifinal at a $75K event in Japan, she finished the year ranked No. 144.
2016: First WTA final, Newcomer of the Year, top 50
Osaka began the season playing three tournaments in Australia. Her results during this stretch were good enough to bring her near the top 100, which allowed her to play in WTA Tour-level events all year. Most notably, she qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw at the Australian Open and made it to the third round. In particular, she upset No. 21 Elina Svitolina in straight sets in the second round before losing to No. 16 Victoria Azarenka. Back in the United States, Osaka received a wild card into the Miami Open, her first Premier Mandatory main draw. During the event, she won two matches including a victory over No. 18 Sara Errani. With this success, she progressed into the top 100 of the WTA rankings for the first time.
In the clay court events leading up the French Open, Osaka needed to qualify for every event she entered. She only managed to do so at a single event, the Charleston Open, where she lost her only match in the main draw. Nonetheless, Osaka was ranked high enough to be directly accepted into the main draw of the French Open. In her debut at the tournament, she recorded her only two clay court match wins of the season. She also won the first set against No. 6 Simona Halep, but ultimately lost the match. She then did not play the grass court season after suffering an injury shortly after the French Open.
Osaka returned to tennis in the middle of July. At the US Open in August, she reached the third round at a Grand Slam event for the third time this year. She upset No. 30 CoCo Vandeweghe in the first round before losing to No. 9 Madison Keys in three sets. During her match against Keys, she had a 5–1 lead in the third set before ultimately losing in a tiebreak. After the tournament, Osaka began the Asian hard court season with two tournaments in Tokyo, first losing in the second round at the Japan Women’s Open. Having already reached her first two career WTA quarterfinals earlier in the year, she then made her breakthrough as a wild card at the Premier level Pan Pacific Open. She upset No. 12 Dominika Cibulková and No. 20 Svitolina on the road to making her first WTA final at the age of 18. At the time, Cibulkova was the highest ranked player she ever defeated. Additionally, she was the first Japanese player to contest the final at the event since Kimiko Date in 1995. Osaka ultimately finished runner-up to Caroline Wozniacki. Nonetheless, she entered the top 50 of the WTA rankings for the first time. At the end of the season, she was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year.
2017: Slight regression, two top 10 victories
After her huge improvement the previous year, Osaka was unable to set a new career high ranking in 2017. Nonetheless, she maintained a steady ranking throughout the season, rising no higher than No. 44 while falling no lower than No. 68, her year-end ranking. She did not win more than two main draw matches at any event all year.
Osaka’s best tournament result of the season came at the Canadian Open, where she reached the round of sixteen as a qualifier. During the event, she upset No. 16 Anastasija Sevastova before needing to retire against world No. 1 Karolína Plíšková due to an abdominal injury. She had won the second set against Plíšková. Her next best results of the year came at the last two Grand Slam events of the season, where she made it to the third round at each of Wimbledon and the US Open. She had a strong debut at Wimbledon, upsetting No. 23 Barbora Strýcová before losing to No. 11 Venus Williams. Her US Open was then highlighted by her first round win against defending champion and No. 6 Angelique Kerber, the first top ten victory of Osaka’s career. However, her run was ended by veteran qualifier Kaia Kanepi. This was the second consecutive year she lost in the third round of the US Open after having at least a one-break lead in the third set.
Osaka in particular struggled playing on clay courts. After winning her first two matches at the Charleston Open, she did not win another main draw match on clay the remainder of the season. Osaka did well in her first full grass court season on the WTA Tour, going 4–4 behind her performance at Wimbledon. Her biggest wins of the year all came on hard court. In addition to her results at the Canadian Open and the US Open, she also recorded a second top ten victory over No. 5 Venus Williams at the Hong Kong Open, her last tournament of the year.
2018: US Open champion, Indian Wells title, world No. 4
Following her lack of improvement in 2017, Osaka hired Sascha Bajin to be her coach in the offseason. In their second tournament together, Osaka produced her career best result at a Grand Slam event. At the Australian Open, she reached the fourth round after defeating two top-twenty players in Elena Vesnina and hometown favorite Ashleigh Barty, ultimately losing to world No. 1 Simona Halep. This result helped her return to the top 50 within the next month.
At the Indian Wells Open, Osaka had the next big breakthrough of her career. Having never won a professional title or made it past the third round at a Premier Mandatory event, she won the tournament convincingly, only dropping one set in the middle round of the tournament. In the quarterfinals and semifinals, she defeated two top-five opponents in Karolína Plíšková and Halep, the latter of which was her first victory over a current No. 1 player. She then closed out the tournament with a win in the final over fellow up-and-coming player Daria Kasatkina, making her the youngest champion at the event in ten years. With her first title, she surged past her previous career-high ranking to No. 22 in the world. Osaka played the following week as well at the Miami Open and extended her win streak by one additional match in her first meeting against her childhood idol Serena Williams, who was competing in just her second tournament back from maternity leave.
After her success in the early months of the season, Osaka had a relatively quiet middle of the year. She reached the third round at both the French Open and Wimbledon, matching her best performance at each tournament. The closest she came to winning another tournament was on grass at the Nottingham Open, where she lost to top seed Barty in the semifinals. Osaka did not have another breakthrough result until the US Open, where she won her second title of the year. Like at Indian Wells, she only dropped one set in the middle round of the event, this time to No. 20 Aryna Sabalenka. In the three early rounds, she only lost a total of seven games and notably recorded a double bagel victory against Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Osaka was drawn against Madison Keys in the semifinals, and was able to avenge her tough loss from the 2016 US Open to advance to the final. In the final, she defeated Serena Williams for the second time in 2018 to win her first grand slam title. The match was marred by an on-court dispute between Williams and the umpire highlighted by Williams receiving a game penalty and boos from the crowd both during the match and the award ceremony. Osaka later said that the win was “a little bit bittersweet” and “it wasn’t necessarily the happiest memory.” Nonetheless, she became the first Japanese woman to contest a Grand Slam singles final and the first Japanese Grand Slam singles champion.
Now ranked in the top ten, Osaka extended her win streak to ten matches by reaching the final at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo for the second time in her career. Plíšková was able to end her win streak in the final. Osaka then reached the semifinals at the Premier Mandatory China Open. With her third consecutive deep run, she rose to a career-best ranking of world No. 4, matching the record of Kimiko Date and Kei Nishikori for the highest ranking held by a Japanese player in history. Osaka closed out the year by participating at the WTA Finals, where she was grouped with Sloane Stephens, Angelique Kerber, and Kiki Bertens. She lost all three of her round-robin matches, notably retiring against Bertens due to a hamstring injury to end her season. Osaka finished the year as the WTA Tour leader in prize money, having earned almost $6.4 million.
2019: Australian Open champion, world No. 1
Osaka entered the Australian Open as the fourth seed and also one of eleven players in contention for the world No. 1 ranking. She made it to the final against Petra Kvitová, having beaten Hsieh Su-wei in the third round despite being one set, 2–4 and 0–40 down at one point. Anastasija Sevastova also won the first set against her in the fourth round, while No. 8 Karolína Plíšková pushed her to three sets in the semifinals. After Osaka won the first set in the final, Kvitová saved three championship break points before breaking Osaka in back-to-back service games to win the second set. Nonetheless, Osaka recovered to win the championship. She was the first woman to win consecutive Grand Slam singles titles since Serena Williams in 2015, and was the first player to follow up her first Grand Slam singles title with another at the next such event since Jennifer Capriati in 2001. She also became the first Asian player to be ranked No. 1 in the world in singles. Despite this title, she parted ways with her coach Sascha Bajin following the tournament.
Osaka struggled after the Australian Open. She lost in the fourth and third rounds at the two Premier Mandatory tournaments in March, the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open. After beginning the clay-court season with a semifinal at the Stuttgart Open where she withdrew due to an abdominal injury, her best results were two quarterfinals at the Madrid Open and the Italian Open. She also withdrew from the latter due to a right hand injury. Osaka matched her best result at the French Open, losing to Kateřina Siniaková in the third round. During the grass court season, Osaka lost in the early rounds to Yulia Putintseva at both tournaments she entered, including the first round at Wimbledon. As a result, she lost the No. 1 ranking to Ashleigh Barty.
Before the US Open, Osaka made the quarterfinals at the two Premier 5 tournaments in August, the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati Open, where she was defeated by Serena Williams and Sofia Kenin respectively. These performances helped her regain the No. 1 ranking so that she had the top seed at the US Open. Nonetheless, her title defense came to an end in the fourth round against Belinda Bencic, who defeated her for the third time during the year. She then fell to No. 4 in the world. Following the tournament, Osaka went back to having her father as her coach. This change had an immediate impact, as Osaka won her next two tournaments. First, she won the Pan Pacific Open in her hometown of Osaka, defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final. Two weeks later, she won the Premier Mandatory China Open. During the tournament, she defeated reigning US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the quarterfinals and world No. 1 and reigning French Open champion Ashleigh Barty in the final, both in three sets after losing the first. This was Andreescu’s first loss since March. These results brought her to No. 3 in the world. At the end of the season, Osaka qualified for the WTA Finals for the second consecutive year. However, after defeating Petra Kvitová in her first match, she withdrew due to injury.
2020
Starting her season at Brisbane, Osaka defeated Maria Sakkari, Sofia Kenin, and Kiki Bertens, before falling to Karolína Plíšková, despite having a match point in the second set. At the Australian Open, Osaka defeated Marie Bouzková and Zheng Saisai, before being defeated by Coco Gauff in the third round.
NATIONAL REPRESENTATION
Fed Cup
Osaka made her Fed Cup debut for Japan in 2017, while the team was competing in the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I. Japan won all nine of their rubbers to advance out of their round robin pool. Although Osaka won her singles match in the play-off against Kazakhstan, the team lost their other two matches and was not able to advance. The following year with Osaka absent, Japan was able to defeat Kazakhstan in the same group to advance to the 2018 World Group II Play-offs. In this stage, they hosted Great Britain in a usual five rubber tie. At this point, Osaka returned to the team and won her opening match against Heather Watson. After she lost her next rubber to Johanna Konta, Kurumi Nara was also able to defeat Watson to set up a decisive doubles match. Japan won that final rubber to earn promotion to World Group II in 2019.
Hopman Cup
Osaka made her Hopman Cup debut in 2018 with Yūichi Sugita. Japan was making their first appearance at the exhibition tournament since 2001. They were grouped with Switzerland, the United States, and Russia, and lost all three of their ties. Osaka’s only match win came in singles against Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She also had a big highlight in the mixed doubles match against Switzerland when she served an ace past Roger Federer.
ENDORSEMENTS
Osaka has been represented by the IMG management company since 2016. The Japanese sporting equipment manufacturer Yonex has supplied her with rackets since 2008. She plays with the Yonex Ezone 98 racket, equipped with Polytour Pro 125 and Rexis 130 strings. Nike has been her apparel sponsor since 2019. She had previously been sponsored by Adidas for four years.
Osaka is a brand ambassador for Japanese automobile manufacturer Nissan and Japanese electronics manufacturer Citizen Watch. She also endorses several other Japanese companies, including noodle maker Nissin Foods, cosmetics producer Shiseido, the broadcasting station Wowow, and airline All Nippon Airways (ANA). Osaka is one of the most marketable female athletes in the world. She earned an estimated $16 million in endorsements alone in 2019, which placed her second in the world behind Serena Williams who earned $25 million in endorsements. The following year, she became the highest-paid female athlete of all-time, having earned $37.4 million earned in total.
PERSONAL LIFE
Osaka has a multi-ethnic background, with her father being born in Haiti and her mother being from Japan. She has said, “My dad’s Haitian, so I grew up in a Haitian household in New York. I lived with my grandma. And my mom’s Japanese and I grew up with the Japanese culture too, and if you’re saying American, I guess because I lived in America, I also have that too.” Her Haitian grandparents only spoke to her in Creole because they did not know English, while her mother conversed with her in Japanese. Osaka decided to relinquish her citizenship in 2019 so that she could represent Japan at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and also in accordance with Japan’s Nationality Act, which requires dual citizens to choose a nationality by the age of 22. Osaka can understand Japanese, but is not very confident speaking the language. She has said, “I can understand way more Japanese than I can speak.” At press conferences, Osaka can take questions in Japanese but typically will answer them in English.
In Japan, she is referred to as a hāfu, meaning that she is half-Japanese. Her Japanese grandparents did not initially accept her parents’ relationship. This led to her parents relocating from Hokkaido to the city of Osaka, where she and her sister were born. As a result, her mother did not have contact with her family for nearly 15 years and Osaka did not get the chance to return to Japan until she was 11 years old. Her grandparents did not initially support her parents for building their daughters’ lives around tennis. However, they later began to support Osaka as a tennis player following her unexpected upset of Sam Stosur in her WTA Tour debut. They were also proud of her in particular for winning the 2018 US Open.
Osaka has a shy, reserved personality. Her former coach Sascha Bajin was initially confused by her personality, saying, “I thought she was a little bit more of a diva because she didn’t talk much. She doesn’t really look at someone’s eyes, but that’s just because she was always so shy … Back then I didn’t know for what reason.” Osaka is also very frank and is regarded as having a dry sense of humor. During her 2018 Indian Wells Open victory speech, she began by saying “Um, hello … I’m Naom … oh never mind” and later noted, “This is probably going to be the worst acceptance speech of all time” after being worried about forgetting whom to thank, and appearing to nearly forget to thank her opponent Daria Kasatkina as well as one of her sponsors Yonex. In May 2020, Osaka shared on social media her own struggle with shyness, which she says has prevented her from speaking up and resulted in decisions being made for her.
Osaka is in a relationship with American rapper YBN Cordae.
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