Naomi Osaka – Tennis Star from Japan
Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka was born on 16 October 1997 in Osaka, Japan. Her mother, Tamaki Osaka, comes from the northern main island of Hokkaido. Her father, Leonard “San” François, is from Haiti and met Naomi's mother while on holiday in Hokkaido. Naomi Osaka has an older sister, Mari, who is also a professional tennis player. Because she had married a Black man, Tamaki was disowned by her father. Although Naomi Osaka was still very young at the time, this bitter experience of her mother's is one of the reasons behind her commitment to fighting racism.
When Naomi was three years old, the family moved to the USA, to Long Island in the state of New York, where they initially lived with her grandparents. On her 22nd birthday, Naomi Osaka opted for Japanese citizenship, since she wanted to compete for Japan at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and her parents had decided early on that the children would compete for their birth country. Under Japanese law, citizens with dual nationality must choose one of the two nationalities by the time they turn 22.
Naomi Osaka's playing style and first steps in tennis
Inspired by the Williams sisters, whom he admired on television at the 1999 French Open, Osaka's father decided to teach both his daughters to play tennis. His role model was Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena, who had trained both his daughters to such success despite having no tennis experience of his own. This is how Naomi Osaka took up tennis at the age of just three. For better training conditions, the family moved to Florida in 2006. At age 15, Naomi trained under coach Patrick Tauma at the ISP Academy.
Naomi Osaka's tennis is defined by an aggressive baseline game. Standing 1.80m tall and playing right-handed, she hits a two-handed backhand and boasts a powerful forehand that was already reaching top speeds of 160 km/h by the time she was 16. And with a serve that can hit up to 200 km/h, she ranks among the hardest servers on the WTA Tour. Osaka's matches are typically defined by plenty of winners, though the key to her success lies in her ability to win long rallies as a rule. This reflects the Japanese star's maturing process, as she was rather shy as a young player and had not yet developed the mental strength to consistently come out on top in such extended exchanges.
Milestones on the way to the top of world tennis
Naomi Osaka never played on the junior tour and only took part in a handful of youth tournaments. Instead, she made her debut straight on the ITF Women's Circuit on her 14th birthday in 2011. Three years later, she played her first WTA tournament in Stanford, reaching the second round. In 2016, she qualified in Melbourne for her first Grand Slam tournament, reaching the third round on her very first attempt. Around this time, Osaka began to mature as a tennis player and climb steadily up the WTA rankings, catching the attention of the Japan Tennis Association, for whom she made her Fed Cup debut in 2017.
In March 2018, she then won her first WTA title, the prestigious Masters event in Indian Wells, where she beat her opponent Daria Kasatkina comfortably in straight sets in the final. A few months later, she celebrated her first Grand Slam triumph at the US Open – becoming the first Japanese player ever to do so – beating her idol Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4. This win took her up to No. 7 in the world rankings, the first time she'd ever been ranked in the top ten. At the 2019 Australian Open, Naomi Osaka claimed a three-set win over Petra Kvitová to win her second consecutive Grand Slam title. This victory made her the first Asian tennis player in history to become world No. 1 in women's tennis.
The tennis products Naomi Osaka relies on
As every tennis player knows, hard training and solid match preparation are eminently important, but they're not everything when it comes to playing tennis successfully. What matters just as much is tennis gear you can rely on through and through. After all, it's only when you feel completely at ease on court that you can focus 100% on the match. That's why Naomi Osaka trusts Nike for her tennis clothing. She's even designed her own collection with the US sportswear manufacturer, featuring her own monogram. For her rackets and strings, Osaka relies on Japanese tennis specialist Yonex.
If you too want to kit yourself out professionally – at least when it comes to gear – like your tennis idol Naomi Osaka, you'll find everything you need right here at Tennis-Point. Take your time browsing our online tennis shop and order Naomi Osaka's tennis products from the comfort of your own home. We also regularly have fantastic special offers and discount promotions for you, so it's well worth checking back often. You can save that for the tennis court instead, when you're smashing the ball past your opponents in your brand-new gear. We wish you lots of fun choosing your kit!