The timing couldn’t be more perfect for a biography of tennis superstar Naomi Osaka. Reinvigorated after taking a break since September 2022 to give birth to her daughter, the 26-year-old returned to compete at the elite level last week for her first tournament.Unfortunately, her comeback ended with a second-round loss to three-time champion Karolina Plishkova at the Brisbane International, but Naomi is unfazed: “It was really fun, though. ,”she wrote After the game.
For a top athlete accustomed to performing in high-pressure situations, shaking off failure may not seem like a big deal, but for Naomi, it’s noteworthy – the woman whose mental health takes on the international spotlight after the 2021 French exam topic, a public exit and her many public spats with reporters, hecklers and critics.
All this and more is recounted in journalist Ben Rotenberg’s new book, Naomi Osaka: The journey to find her power and voice (January 9). This in-depth resume traces the athlete’s roots from admirer of “super shy” Serena Williams to four-time Grand Slam singles champion. Below, see some highlights and revelations from the book.
On October 26, 2019, Naomi Osaka and her coach and father Leonard Francois participated in training before the 2019 WTA Finals at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center in Shenzhen, China.
Zhang Lintao/Getty
When she was a child, her father was so focused on his daughters’ tennis careers that people reported him to the police.
Rotenberg describes extensively how Naomi’s parents, Leonard and Tamaki, used the careers of Serena and Venus Williams as a blueprint for their two daughters, Naomi and Marie. For Leonard, that includes borrowing tactics from Richard Williams and coaching his kids with an iron fist.
“Tamaki said bystanders and park rangers called police multiple times to ask the family to stop Leonard from spending long hours on the field training his daughter,” the authors wrote, adding that Tamaki blamed it. discrimination because tennis was, and still is, a predominantly white sport. But it also speaks to Leonard’s obsession. Instead of working a full-time job, he spends all his time on the tennis court with Naomi and Mari (as well as making some independent short films in his spare time).
Naomi’s tennis success became her family’s financial lifeline.
In 2014, Naomi’s parents received an eviction notice from their Florida apartment and were told they had a month to move out. Tamaki worked long hours at multiple jobs to continue to support her family and fund her daughters’ tennis dreams, but their income was not enough to pay for tournaments. Naomi didn’t have any paying sponsors at the time and made just $6,000 in the first six months of the year.
Yet just four years later, Osaka won her first WTA title in Indian Wells and helped her mother retire with $1.34 million in prize money.
Naomi’s decision to play for Japan instead of the United States may have been a financial factor.
Naomi was born in Japan and moved to New York with her family when she was 3 years old. Although she grew up in the United States, started her tennis career there, and even holds U.S. citizenship, she has always represented Japan as a professional. She and her parents (her mom is Japanese, her dad Haitian) have long maintained that they made the decision when Naomi was young out of a desire to respect her roots. But Rotenberg cited a source – Harold Solomon, who coached Naomi in 2014 and helped Osaka help out when the team played against Japan. Contact the United States Tennis Association (USTA). America’s Decision – Who Says Money Is an Important Factor.
“Solomon told me that he believed the support provided by the USTA was too little too late,” Rotenberg wrote. “The support provided by the JTA proved crucial at a time when the family was struggling financially.” Japan was willing to do more for her: give her a wild card into the tournament and help provide them with some funding. They had no money…that was probably what prompted them to come to Japan. “
Solomon also told Rotenberg: “I think if the U.S. could have stepped up and said, ‘Look, we’re willing to make this investment, we’re willing to do this or send a coach with her and help pay for her expenses,’ I mean, there’s a good chance they’re going to do the American thing.”
Serena Williams broke out in eleven-plus games after losing Naomi.
The first time Naomi beat Serena was at the 2018 Miami Open, she was so excited that she skipped the mandatory post-match press conference. According to Rotenberg, she went directly to the VIP parking lot, “still wearing her sweaty tennis clothes, Serena got into the parked Lincoln Navigator and drove. Serena saw the stop sign in the parking lot and kept going. ,” all the way to her home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, more than 80 miles away.
Naomi Osaka won the women’s singles final at the 2018 US Open alongside runner-up Serena Williams. August 2018, New York City
Julian Finney/Getty
Later that year, when Naomi defeated Serena again in the U.S. Open final—a match most memorable for Serena’s on-court outburst at the referee—she was the first to receive the award. Awarded to the runner-up on a silver platter.
“But after she closed the door, Serena made her feelings about the loss clear and threw the plate into the locker room trash can,” Rothenberg wrote. “While Serena was taking a shower, the locker room attendant took the plates out of the trash can and placed them neatly on a bench near Serena’s dressing room. When Serena returned, she found the plates had unwelcome come to life and she was distressed. Angry. So her wishes could no longer be misunderstood, Serena expressed her disdain for the failure to everyone in the locker room: “I. “No. Play. For. Second. Place,” Serena said, prying the plate away again. “
On a related note, Rothenberg also wrote that Serena canceled plans after losing to Canadian Bianca Andreescu in the 2019 U.S. Open final saturday night live Show Hosting.
Naomi really knew nothing about Serena’s outburst at the U.S. Open.
Naomi mentioned that two days after her US Open victory over Serena, she appeared on today This was her first in-depth interview after the game. Rothenberg wrote that a publicist at Naomi’s then-agency agency IMG gave her the following advice: “They will tempt you to do it, but don’t say anything bad about Serena, it’s not worth it.”
Naomi followed the advice and even took it a step further: She publicly disengaged from the story entirely, saying today, and in the subsequent interview, she had no idea what happened between Serena and the referee in the court. Afterwards, she deliberately avoided learning more about what happened. Rotenberg said, “Naomi chose to be as little involved in the story as possible, not just for days, but for weeks, months, even years.” In fact, her coach at the time, Sasha Barkin, said that during the They never discussed the game again after that night.
She fired the coach over his relationship with another player.
Naomi shocked the tennis world when she severed ties with Barkin. At the time, she was the reigning No. 1 player and he had just been named WTA Coach of the Year. However, after winning her second consecutive Grand Slam title at the 2019 Australian Open, she held a crucial team meeting in Melbourne.
“Naomi confronted Barkin, breaking weeks of silence between them and putting him in hot water, telling him she had heard about his off-field relationship with another player,” Rotenberg revealed, confirming A long-standing rumor. “Bajin had encouraged Naomi to hit the ball with this player in the competition, even though she was ranked much lower, but Bajin repeatedly denied this and the group dispersed. The next day, when Bajin came back and admitted this When it was true, Naomi told him her trust had been broken.”
A few days later, Naomi had one last practice session with Barkin that ended with her in tears, according to Rothenberg. Later that night, Naomi’s agent called Barkin and demanded that he be fired.
Her stance against racial injustice was not shared by all of her peers.
In 2020, Naomi announced she would walk off the court at the Western & Southern Open to speak out against police brutality, following in the footsteps of a number of NBA players. Following her decision, event organizers scrambled to announce that competition throughout the event would be suspended for one day to “fight against racial inequality and social injustice.” Many of Naomi’s peers were unhappy about this, Rotenberg writes.
Naomi Osaka heads to the court during the Western & Southern Open in Queens, New York City on August 28, 2020.
Matthew Stockman/Getty
“Unlike the NBA and WNBA, where decisions are made publicly within both franchises and leagues, Naomi Osaka gets the only credit or blame for triggering the suspension of tennis matches…European players Politicians who are far from adjusting to what is happening in the United States are shocked and confused by the decision. “A lot of people are angry, especially with the U.S. Open so close. “
Rotenberg added: “Although no players publicly expressed dissent on the day of the suspension, several players made complaints to tour and tournament officials… The other two major champions still in contention in the Cincinnati draw are Novak. Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka, who both independently filed complaints to officials with the same complaint: No one is going to stop playing because of something non-sporting that happened in their respective home countries of Serbia and Belarus, then Why does what happens in America disrupt the game?”
Roberto Bautista Agut, another ATP semifinalist that week, told Rotenberg that he “felt it was unfair…the ATP schedule should not depend on her performance; Performance shouldn’t depend on her performance.” “We have to think about ourselves and I don’t think that’s a good choice.”
She wasn’t seeing a therapist while also becoming a public face in the mental health field.
Naomi’s emotional health made headlines after she pulled out of the 2021 French Open, citing mental health issues. After the competition, she signed a deal to represent mental health services company Modern Health and appeared on the cover of Modern Health magazine. time The magazine’s headline is “It’s okay to feel bad.”
“While she became the focus of a global conversation about mental health and depression, what she failed to do was seek or receive meaningful professional help from mental health professionals outside her circle,” Rothenberg wrote. Many believed that this was happening, given the public attention, that was affecting her mental health.” Later, he wrote, “Those close to her knew that there was a disconnect between her public speaking and her private reality: She did not receive any professional psychological help herself.”
Things finally changed during a meeting with her team the day after Osaka’s defeat at Indian Wells in 2022, when a heckler yelled at her “Naomi, you’re terrible!” Make her cry. She began talking to a therapist on the phone, later quipping sarcastically: “About a year after Roland Garros.”