NAOMI Osaka is now the toast of not only talent-starved Japan but of a tennis world teeming with hopefuls hungering for support and recognition, as well.
By winning the US Open on Monday, she became the first Japanese to win a Grand Slam. She succeeded after failures by fellow Japanese Ai Sugiyama and Kimiko Date, now both retired. Sugiyama was No. 8 in the world in 2004 and Date No. 4 in 1995.
So, let’s go biopic, for once.
Osaka, only 20, is nothing but fairy-tale stuff once again.
She is the daughter of a Japanese and a Haitian-born New Yorker.
Tamaki, Naomi’s mother, and Leonard Francois fell in love as students in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
When Tamaki’s father disapproved of their romance—in keeping with Hokkaido tradition of arranged marriages, calling Leonard a disgrace to the family—the couple eloped to Osaka. That’s where Naomi was born in 1998.
The family moved to the US when Naomi was barely three years old.
Leonard became transfixed with Richard Williams after watching Venus and Serena Williams on TV win in the French Open.
Richard retired as a salesman and succeeded in making her daughters Venus and Serena become world tennis champions. He even had them enrolled in French language lessons.
Even though Leonard didn’t play tennis (Richard did little tennis), he resolved to make Naomi and Mari, Naomi’s sister, become world tennis champions, too.
“The blueprint was already there,” said Leonard in an interview with the New York Times (thanks again Sir Vince Socco, for sharing the article). “I just had to follow it.”
Leonard, aided by instructional books and DVDs, would soon make Naomi and Mari hit hundreds, then thousands, of balls per day.
“I don’t remember liking to hit the ball,” Naomi recalled. “The main thing that I wanted was to beat my sister.” But each time they played, Naomi always lost, usually at 6-0.
“For my sister, it wasn’t competition, but for me, it was,” said Naomi. “Every day, I’d say, ‘I’m going to beat you tomorrow.’”
In 2006 the family moved to South Florida to go full time tennis. Home-schooled on the side.
Twelve years later, Naomi is 2018 US Open champ at the expense of her idol, Serena.
Mari is No. 350 in the world, unfortunately hobbled by injuries. Playing a key role in Naomi’s early success is Sascha Bajin, her German coach of Serbian descent, who was Serena’s hitting partner for eight years.
Bajin said: “Naomi’s weapons are just as big as Serena’s. She’s not afraid of center stage, either, and that’s why I believe she has greatness within her.”
Aside from Bajin, Naomi has Abdul Sillah as a conditioning coach. Sillah subjects Naomi to three-minute drills of baseline rallies that last 10 times longer than an average exchange in a match.
“That’s for endurance on legs and lungs burned without affecting the pace and placement of the athlete’s groundstrokes,” said Sillah.
Two years ago, Serena declared that Osaka was “very dangerous.”
In 2017 Osaka dismantled defending champion Angelique Kerber in the first round of the US Open 6-3, 6-1.
In March Osaka, now armed with a 120-mile-per-hour serve, won at Indian Wells in California, beating three current and former world No. 1s for her first WTA title. Those upsets shot her up from No. 28 to No. 17 in August.
Just three days later, she beat Serena in the first round of the Miami Open.
“I kind of wanted to impress her,” Osaka said.
There is bitterness for Leonard toward the United States Tennis Association, whom he accused of not giving much importance on his children’s early career.
So, at age 13, Leonard made Naomi play for Japan. Even as Naomi’s grandfather had told Tamaki, 10 years earlier, that “tennis is a hobby and not a profession.”
Naomi said up to this day: “I don’t necessary feel like an American. I wouldn’t know what that feels like.”
With Osaka’s rise to fame, the Japan Tennis Association, facing a talent drought for years, had just gotten a huge opportunity. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics is just around the corner.
Osaka loves listening to music.
“I am superstitious,” said Osaka. “If I win, I keep listening to the same song. I only change it when I lose.”
Osaka, who is unusually tall for a Japanese at 5-foot-11, was listening to Kendrink Lamar on her headphones on her way to her finals US Open date with Serena.
Sponsors are now lining up for Naomi’s attention, Japan being a nation obsessed with star appeal. Osaka’s Adidas contract is expiring in December.
Ken Nishikori, Japan’s other tennis male star, has earned a $33-million sponsorship, according to Forbes, surpassing even Nadal and Djokovic. Only Federer is ahead of Nishikori.
Looking back, Tamaki, in support of her husband’s hope to make Naomi a world-class fighter, made sushis and balled rice for the kids’ snacks and meals during training breaks at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, Florida.
Dutiful parents. A gifted child that plays every day and who joins tournaments around the world at every opportunity.
Is there a better formula for success than that?
THAT’S IT While perennial whipping boy University of the Philippines started with a big bang by routing University of the East in the UAAP basketball blastoff, Adamson did something bigger by shooting down defending champion Ateneo. Do we have a genuine thrill big time in the league’s 81st season? Fingers crossed.
Image credits: AP/Andres Kudacki