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Naomi Osaka: "Once you have taken a clear position, you really have to win, otherwise the message will be lost"
Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
Naomi Osaka was lying on the blue floor, looking up through the open roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Her hands on her stomach, her knees bent, she lay there as if she were waiting in the park for falling stars.
“I've always seen the great players collapse and look up at the sky from the ground.
I always wanted to know what they saw, ”the Japanese woman explained later.
That September night last year was special for Osaka for several reasons.
She had just won the US Open for the second time.
Two years earlier, the then 20-year-old had surprisingly defeated Serena Williams in her first Grand Slam final.
It was a deserved 6: 2, 6: 4 success, Osaka hit harder, faster, cleaner than the woman who actually hit harder and faster than everyone.
But all of that was overshadowed by an argument between Williams and referee Carlos Ramos, which led to a debate over a lack of equal treatment in tennis.
Osaka's strength and courage to take risks were already evident back then.
What was really impressive, however, was her ability to block the discussions, the constant interruptions and the whistles from the audience.
Osaka was playing with all of her senses.
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No tears of joy: Naomi Osaka after her US Open win against Serena Williams in 2018
Photo: Tim Clayton / Corbis via Getty Images
But when it was time to take the Tiffany's trophy, but the boos were still echoing through the stadium, she bowed her head, pulled her visor over her face, embarrassed by her tears.
She later even apologized for having denied the crowd's favorite the historic 24th Grand Slam title.
A breakthrough to the top of the world should feel different.
The renewed success two years later was all the more important for her.
Today Osaka is number three in the world, on Sunday night she competes against Garbiñe Muguruza at the Australian Open (1 a.m.).
She has become a personality, also off the pitch.
But she had to find her role there first.
Multimillion Dollar Woman
Osaka was born in 1997 in the Japanese port city of the same name.
Father Leonard Francois had taken Richard Williams as a model, the success of the tennis sisters Venus and Serena was to become the blueprint for the childhood of his girls.
"Everything we did was inspired by her life," wrote Osaka recently in a comment for the Telegraph.
They moved to the USA, first New York, then Florida.
Like the Williams sister, the Osaka girls avoided the junior circuit and embarked on a professional career as a young teenager.
In 2014 Naomi Osaka reached the top 250 in the world rankings, and in 2016 she was named Newcomer of the Year.
Two years later she won the US Open, four months later the Australian Open.
Osaka had not only risen to number one in the world within a few months, a shy tennis talent had also become a global sports product.
Prize money and numerous lucrative sponsorship deals in the USA and Japan had catapulted her from zero to second behind Williams in the Forbes list of top earners in sport in 2019 with 24.3 million US dollars, a year later Osaka moved with 37.4 million past her.
But the rapid rise had its price.
Contracts and obligations took away the fun of sport.
In addition, Japan suddenly pulled on the country's new pop star.
With a view to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the black Osaka should represent Japan as a cosmopolitan, diverse country, while at the same time a Japanese sponsor brightened up a cartoon character from Osaka for an advertising campaign until it was unrecognizable.
The sporting balance of this time: At the French Open she only reached the third round, in Wimbledon the opening round was already over, a title defense in New York failed.
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If she hadn't become a tennis player, she would have become a designer: fashion fan Naomi Osaka
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images
The 1.80 meter tall Osaka plays fast and powerfully, she hits the balls very early, so she can set the pace and rob her opponent of valuable time.
She serves strong, her serve rushes up at over 200 km / h.
At the beginning of the 2020 season, she hired Wim Fissette.
The success coach was primarily supposed to help her with her returns, and they also worked on her athleticism.
Osaka found back to her game, she is currently unbeaten in 17 matches.
Recently, Osaka said the corona year gave her the chance to think about many things, "what I want to achieve, what people should remember about me."
In fact, 2020 was also the year Naomi Osaka became an activist.
"It burned inside me for some time"
After the violent death of the black George Floyd in May, the life-threatening shots at Jacob Blake and the lack of sanctions for the police officers involved, she was the only individual athlete to join the sports boycotts in the major US leagues and to strike a semi-final.
She waited for her sport to show a reaction, writes Osaka in "The Telegraph".
“But nothing happened.
I quickly realized that I had to do something myself. "That was not a political statement," it was a humanitarian stance.
She knew that until then she was known to be rather reserved.
"But that has burned inside me for some time." At the US Open in September, Osaka again drew media attention to Black Americans who were killed by police violence by putting names of those affected on their mouths every day. Wore nose protection.
The success in Flushing Meadows was therefore also important for the activist Osaka.
"Once you've taken a clear stand, you have to win, or the message will be lost," wrote Osaka.
If she had lost in any round, even in the final, critics might have said she was distracted and should have stayed with the sport.
"I wish it wasn't like that, it's a shame for all the people who want to work for change."
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Black Lives Matter: Naomi Osaka at the US Open 2020
Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
Osaka wants to continue to use its popularity in the future.
From her success she only picks out those facets that make her happy.
She can live out her passion for fashion with photo shoots and a collection at Nike, she invests in headphones, and she recently joined the US soccer team Carolina Courage.
It is "very important to her to raise awareness of women's sports and to inspire the next generation of young girls."
Naomi Osaka shows what defines the next generation of sports stars: She has style and a plan, is cool and critical, self-confident and down-to-earth.
At 23 she found her role.
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