How Naomi Osaka became the most unique champion in tennis – Sydney Morning Herald
BIOGRAPHY
Naomi Osaka
Ben Rothenberg
Text, $36.99
Naomi Osaka can often look tranquil on a tennis court. This is the young woman who charmed spectators by rescuing a wayward butterfly midway through an Australian Open match early in 2021. So gentle. So Zen. But she has also been centre-stage for some of the biggest sporting dramas in recent years.
Will Naomi Osaka emulate Ash Barty and walk away from tennis?Credit:
It was Osaka on the other side of the net when Serena Williams launched a sustained tirade against an umpire during the 2018 US Open final, a match that ended with Osaka, then just 20, a victor in tears.
It was Osaka, so shy that her preferred mode of communication is social media, who publicly embraced the Black Lives Matter movement and wore masks with the names of victims of police brutality during the 2020 US Open, which she also won. Osaka rocked the tennis establishment by refusing to attend press conferences during the 2021 French Open, helping to put the issue of athletes’ mental health in the spotlight.
She is unique, and not only for her achievements in tennis: four grand slam victories (one more than Ash Barty) before she had turned 24; the first Asian number one in the world, male or female; an introvert whose responses to questions have included opaque references to Pokémon and rappers. She once introduced herself as “weird”, but that doesn’t begin to do her justice.
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On her website she is described as a “multicultural, multiracial Japanese-Haitian-American woman”. Ben Rothenberg, author of this hefty biography, likens her to Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe as one of those “important champions … who redrew lines outside the court”.
The book arrives at an intriguing stage of her career. Still only 26, her Australian summer represents a comeback. She is a new mum; one who, again like Barty, has taken an extended break from tennis. Her wealth, largely from endorsements, is mind-boggling. Having already ticked off her early goals (lighting the cauldron at the Tokyo Olympics was a bonus), motivation may be a challenge, especially when top-level tennis comes with intense scrutiny that she endures rather than embraces.
Rothenberg, an American sportswriter, describes an Instagram Live conversation Osaka had with reigning number one Iga Swiatek, in which she told the Polish star: “Honestly, I feel like I want to, in the end, not be known for being a tennis player.” That will be hard, Swiatek replied. Super hard, Osaka agreed. “But … tennis is such a short time in our lives.”
