Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka Born on Octoberin Osaka, is a Japanese tennis player, professional since 2012. Of Japanese mother and Haitian father, she has lived in the United States since the age of three and has, in addition to Japanese nationality, American nationality, which 'she gives up in Octoberas required by Japanese law which refuses dual nationality beyond the age of 22.
Considered the revelation of the 2016 season, she confirmed this status by winning the Indian Wells tournament in 2018. She then achieved the double US Open in 2018 and the Australian Open in 2019 at only 21 years old. She rose to world fame and reached first place in the WTA rankings following her victory in Melbourne. Men and women alike, she is the first Japanese to win a Grand Slam tournament and to occupy the top of the world rankings. Naomi Osaka subsequently won a second US Open in 2020 . She is the first player since Jennifer Capriati in 2001-2002 won three Grand Slam titles in as many finals contested.
Career of Naomi Osaka
Biographical references
Naomi Osaka was born in 1997, in Japan, in the Chūō district of Osaka, of a Japanese mother, Tamaki Osaka, and a Haitian father, ex-student of New York University, Leonard François. Naomi Osaka's parents met in the 1990s in Sapporo , on the island of Hokkaidō , in northern Japan . Destined by her father to contract an arranged marriage, Tamaki had to reveal to her family her relationship with a black foreigner, which remained secret for several years. Faced with her father's refusal to accept her affair with Leonard, she chose to move away from her family environment and move to Osaka with the man she loves.
Like her older sister Mari, born in 1996, Naomi took her mother's last name for convenience, while the family lived in Japan. During the year 2000, faced with family disapproval of their union, Naomi's parents left Japan with their two daughters and settled in New York and then, in 2006 in Fort Lauderdale ( Florida ), in the United States. -United. Following the lead of Richard Williams , father and trainer of Venus and Serena Williams, Naomi's father encouraged his daughters to play tennis diligently.
In Florida , where she now resides, Naomi developed his tennis game in the Harold Solomon Tennis Academy (SBT Tennis Academy in Florida). Naomi and Mari both became professional tennis players .
In the 2010s, Naomi's grandparents reconciled with their daughter, notably showing their pride in public, after their granddaughter's victory at the Australian Open , in J.
2012-2014: debut
Naomi Osaka played her first tournaments on the ITF circuit in 2012, achieving her best performance reaching the semi-finals at Amelia Island in September.
In 2013, she reached her first ITF final in El Paso in June, and she is trying for the first time to qualify on the WTA circuit at the tournaments in Quebec and Tokyo in September.
In 2014, she reached a second final on the ITF circuit in Irapuato in March. During this season, she entered the main draw for the first time on the main circuit in two tournaments: in July, at Stanford , she qualified and then had her first big victory in the first round againstSamantha Stosur , then 19th World before losing against Andrea Petkovic; then in October, she obtained a wild card in Osaka , where she passed another round, against her compatriot Erika Sema, before losing against Elina Svitolina .
2015: first final on the WTA Tour
Her career accelerated in 2015. She first reached two new finals on ITF tournaments , which is more in higher competitions compared to her two previous finals: in May during the Kangaroo Cup in Gifu , then in June at the Surbiton tournament .
Then she stands when she was 18 years old and is classified in the 203th place worldwide, reaching in November the final of the WTA tournament in Hua Hin . She notably beats two seeds of the top 100 series, Evgeniya Rodina and Nao Hibino , before losing in three sets for the title against Yaroslava Shvedova .
2016: Revelation of the Year at WTA Awards
Naomi Osaka competed in her first Grand Slam tournaments in 2016 and revealed herself to the general public by reaching the third round each time.
At the Australian Open , she released qualifications then goes victories over Donna Vekić and Elina Svitolina ( 21th worldwide, seeded no. 18) before losing against Victoria Azarenka .
In March, in Miami , also pass two rounds including a victory over Sara Errani , 18th World. At Roland Garros , she successively dismisses Jeļena Ostapenko , seed no. 32, and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni , then bows against Simona Halepin three sets. With this performance, she entered the world top 100 for the first time.
At the US Open , she beat Coco Vandeweghe , seeded no. 28 and qualified Yingying Duan before taking a set in Madison Keys .
In September, she reached the final of the Tokyo tournament , it eliminates such Misaki Doi , 34th World, Dominika Cibulkova , 12th , and Elina Svitolina , 20th , not bowing as against Caroline Wozniacki , 28th. It then enters the top 50 and ended the year at 40th place. She is named as the WTA Awards revelation of the year .
2017. First wins over players from the top 10
Naomi Osaka begins her season with a third round in Auckland , where she benefits from the Venus Williams forfeit . At the Australian Open , she skipped a lap and then lost to Johanna Konta .
In February, she was selected for the Japanese Fed Cup squad for the first time in Group I, winning all four of her matches against the Philippines , India , China and Kazakhstan .
It continues to grow with regular victories against top-ranked players that, as in March at Indian Wells , where she also reached the third round by eliminating including Zhang Shuai , 34th. At Roland Garros , she left the tournament in the first round against Alison Van Uytvanck .
In July, she participated for the first time at Wimbledon , where she also pass two rounds, discarding Sara Sorribes Tormo then Barbora Strýcová , 23th World before losing against Venus Williams.
In Toronto , she came out of qualifying then eliminated Anastasija Sevastova , 16th in the world, but then had to give up against Karolína Plíšková at the start of the third set.
In the first round of the US Open , she beat for the first time a player of the world top 10: Angelique Kerber , 6th. She goes on against Denisa Allertová then is eliminated by Kaia Kanepi .
In October, the second round of the Hong Kong Open , she defeated Venus Williams , then 5th World.
At the end of the season, Sascha Bajin becomes his coach and replaces David Taylor .
2018: 1st Grand Slam title at the US Open, the first title in Indian Wells and integration top 4
After a year 2017 full of promise, its start to 2018 was marked by a defeat in the first round of the Hobart tournament against Yulia Putintseva . After this defeat, she had a good run at the Australian Open , notably beating two seeds, Elena Vesnina (7-6, 6-2) and the local Ashleigh Barty (6-3, 6-2 ). She reached for the first time to the final round in Grand Slams , bowing at this stage meet future finalist Simona Halep (3-6, 2-6) in 1 h 19 min , then no1 World.
In Doha , she went through qualifying, where she won two matches in straight sets, before losing in the second round to Anastasija Sevastova .
In Dubai , she was defeated in the quarter-finals by Elina Svitolina , future winner.
After this irregular start to the season, she went on to perform at the Premier Mandatory in Indian Wells . It eliminates successively Maria Sharapova (6-4, 6-4) a former world number and former world number two and top seed no 31, Agnieszka Radwańska (6-3, 6-2) , the qualified surprise Sachia Vickery (6-3, 6-3), and finally the Greek María Sákkari (6-1, 5-7, 6-1), against whom she loses her first set of the tournament. Arrival in the quarterfinals, she surprised everyone by reversing the 5th world, Karolína Plíšková , in 1 h 18 min (6-2, 6-3) 22 and offers a new duel against the world no 1 Halep which she easily wins (6-3, 6-0) in only one hour of play.
In the final, she won easily (6-3, 6-2, in just over an hour) against another young 20-year-old player, the Russian Daria Kasatkina , seeded number 20 . Thanks to this title, her first on the circuit, she gained twenty-two places in the WTA rankings to reach 22nd in the world.
Buoyed by her success in California, Osaka inherits a complicated draw at the Miami tournament with a first round against former world number one Serena Williams , who is playing her second tournament since returning to competition after a fourteen-month absence. following her pregnancy. However, she won quite easily (6-3, 6-2) against her childhood idol. However, it soon loses the next round against the no World 4 Elina Svitolina (4-6, 2-6), ending his streak.
Subsequently, she benefited for the first time from a seeded status in a Grand Slam ( no 21) at Roland Garros , where she lost in the 3rdround against Madison Keys (1-6, 6-7 ). Then on grass, she reached the semi-final in Nottingham , losing to the future winner Ashleigh Barty . She followed with another 3rd tour Wimbledon , where she is seeded no 18, dryly losing (2-6, 4-6) against Angelique Kerber , the future winner.
At the tournament in Flushing Meadows , Osaka, seeded no 20, qualified for the knockout stages with only seven games lost and two hours and fifty-eight minutes past the court on, subsequently diverting Laura Siegemund , Julia Glushko and Aliaksandra Sasnovich . She then reached her first quarter-final in a Grand Slam, beating Aryna Sabalenka (6-3, 2-6, 6-4) then 20th world. Then she continued until the final with clear victories against Lesia Tsurenko (6-1, 6-1) in 57 minutes ; and the 14th World, Madison Keys (6-2, 6-4) in 1 h 25 min. While her compatriot Kimiko Date had reached the Grand Slam semi-finals three times, Naomi Osaka became the first Japanese to reach a final in this type of singles tournament. She then won against Serena Williams in the final (6-2, 6-4) after 1 h 19 min of play, thus winning her first Grand Slam title and becoming, men and women alike, the first Japanese to win such a trophy in singles. Afterwards, the Japanese returned to the atmosphere, the controversy surrounding the match by giving her feelings and that she became a star in Japan . This title allows him to get into the top 10 next week, at the 7th spot.
She continued with the Tokyo tournament where, as in 2016, she lost in the final, this time against the 8th world, Karolína Plíšková (4-6, 4-6) in just an hour but being ill today. -there. And after taking out Dominika Cibulková , Barbora Strýcová and Camila Giorgi without losing a round. She ignores Wuhan but participates in the Premier Mandatory Beijing , she goes to the semifinals, discarding including the 10th World, Julia Goerges (6-1, 6-2) and difficult localZhang Shuai (3-6, 6-4, 7-5), ending the game in tears. But loses at this stage against Anastasija Sevastova (4-6, 4-6) in an hour and a half. She continues to progress in the WTA rankings, from the 6th place in the world after Tokyo and then to the 4th after Beijing.
The Begins the Masters Singapore placed in the red group with no 2 World Angelique Kerber , the no 6 Sloane Stephens and no 9 Kiki Bertens . For her first match, she lost (5-7, 6-4, 1-6) in 2 h 24 min against Stephens ut lost her second match against Kerber (4-6, 7-5, 4- 6) in 2 h 31 min again after a big battle. She was beaten by Bertens (3-6, ab.) On retirement in 47 minutes for his last group game.
She eventually ended the year at the 5th place worldwide, with highlight to his US Open title and a place in the top 4.
2019-2020 Grand Slam in Melbourne consecutive, and accession to the throne winning streak in Asia
Naomi Osaka started her year in Brisbane by reaching the last four but fell to Lesia Tsurenko (2-6, 4-6); then she forfeits Sydney . Then, at the Australian Open , she won her second successive Grand Slam, defeating former no 2 world and seeded no 8, Czech Petra Kvitová (7-62, 5- 7, 6-4) at the end of a suspenseful encounter lasting 2 hours 27 minutes..
On its way, it eliminates particular other four seeds: Hsieh Su-wei ( no 28) (5-7, 6-4, 6-1) after Anastasija Sevastova ( no13) in a tough match (4-6, 6-3, 6-4) nervously. Then Elina Svitolina ( no 6) more easily (6-4, 6-1) in 1 h 12 and Karolína Plíšková ( no 4) in a disjointed encounter (6-2, 4-6, 6-4) d 1 h 53 with a match validated by the hawk-eye and thus qualify for his 2 final consecutive Grand Slam.
This victory also allows him to take over the place of no 1 worldwide, becoming the first Japanese ever to reach the top of world tennis, both men and women. With only three victories to her credit, Naomi Osaka is also the world number 1 least titled in history.
In March as defending champion at Indian Wells tournament , the Japanese returned to the land of his 1st title but with a status of leader and favorite. Exempted from the first round, then easily passing its two games, Osaka bowed sharply (3-6, 1-6) in 1:07 of play during the round of 16 against the Swiss Belinda Bencic.
The , the world number 1 was eliminated by the Czech Kateřina Siniaková ( 42nd player in the WTA rankings ) in the third round of Roland-Garros in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.
2020
In 2020, the famous Netflix platform announces the preparation of a docu-series on the player, directed by filmmaker Garrett Bradley.
On September 12, 2020, she won her second US Open by defeating the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (1-6, 6-3, 6-3). Lying on the ground at the end of the match, she explains having adopted this position because she "always wanted to see what they saw", in reference to the many players who lie down on the field after a success .
During the US Open 2020 tournament, Naomi Osaka distinguished herself by publicly engaging against police violence in the United States. At each match played, she arrived with a black mask bearing the name of one of the victims of police violence.
Awards of Naomi Osaka
Women's singles titles
| N o | Dated | Name and venue of the tournament | Category | Endowment | Area | Finalist | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 07-03-2018 | BNP Paribas Open , Indian Wells | FIRST* | 8 648 508 | Hard ( ext. ) | Daria Kasatkina | 6-3, 6-2 | Route |
| 2 | 28-08-2018 | US Open , New York | G. Slam | 40,912,000 | Hard ( ext. ) | Serena williams | 6-2, 6-4 | Route |
| 3 | 14-01-2019 | Australian Open , Melbourne | G. Slam | 28 814 100 | Hard ( ext. ) | Petra Kvitová | 7-6 2 , 5-7, 6-4 | Route |
| 4 | 09-16-2019 | Toray Pan Pacific Open , Osaka | First | 823,000 | Hard ( ext. ) | Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova | 6-2, 6-3 | Route |
| 5 | 28-09-2019 | China Open , Beijing | FIRST* | 7,430,905 | Hard ( ext. ) |  Ashleigh Barty | 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 | Route |
| 6 | 13-09-2020 | US Open , New York | G. Slam | 53,400,000 | Hard ( ext. ) |  Victoria Azarenka | 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 | Route |
Women's Singles Finals
| No. | Dated | Name and venue of the tournament | Category | Endowment | Area | Winner | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 19-09-2016 | Toray Pan Pacific Open , Tokyo | First | 1,000,000 | Hard ( ext. ) | Caroline Wozniacki | 7-5, 6-3 | Route |
| 2 | 17-09-2018 | Toray Pan Pacific Open , Tokyo | First | 890 100 | Hard ( ext. ) | Karolína Plíšková | 6-4, 6-4 | Route |
| 3 | 22-08-2020 | Western & Southern Open , New York | Prime 5 | 1,950,079 | Hard ( ext. ) | Victoria Azarenka | Flat rate | Route |
Women's doubles title
No
Ladies' Doubles Final
Any
Grand Slam course for Naomi Osaka
Victories (3)
| Year | Tournament | Opponent in the final | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | US Open | Serena williams | 6-2, 6-4 |
| 2019 | Australian Open | Petra Kvitová | 7-6 2 , 5-7, 6-4 |
| 2020 | US Open | Victoria Azarenka | 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 |
Top Ranking of Naomi Osaka
WTA rankings at the end of season
| Year | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Singles rank | 1028 | 430 | 250 | 203 | 40 | 68 | 5 | 3 |
| Duplicate rank | - | - | 1279 | - | 370 | 699 | - | - |
Source: (en) Rankings of Naomi Osaka [ archive ] on the official website of the International Tennis Federation
Periods to the rank of world number
| # | Preceded by | Dates | Followed by | Number of weeks | Accumulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simona halep | 01/28/2019 - 06/23/2019 | Ashleigh Barty | 21 | 21 |
| 2 | Ashleigh Barty | 08/12/2019 - 09/09/2019 | Ashleigh Barty | 4 | 25 |
Naomi Osaka: Playstyle
Osaka is an aggressive baseline player. She has excellent brute strength, especially on her forehand and serve. Her backhand is not bad, but it is less offensive and almost always crossed. Osaka could hit 160 km / h from the right at the age of sixteen, and her service has been clocked up to 200 km / h, making her one of the ten fastest servers in WTA history. While you can use your power to achieve a large number of winners, the key to the success of Osaka is to win long rallies (Rally).
One of the first notable instances, where that strategy proved successful, was when Osaka reached the first WTA final of her career at the 2016 Pan Pacific Open.
Osaka attributed his great season in 2018 to improving his mental focus and reducing unforced errors. At the Wuhan Open towards the end of the year, she noted: "I think my biggest improvement is mental. My game is more consistent, there are not so many unforced errors. I'm not sure how many I had today, but sometimes last year I made much".
She attributed some of these changes to her coach Sascha Bajin, saying: "(I was able to improve) since I was working with him, I tend to be a little negative with myself, now I feel like I have become a little more optimistic." "I fight with myself a lot, so he has been like a peacemaker." Bajin also agreed with Osaka on the impact of having a patient and positive approach in every match.
