Already a star, on courtroom and off, Naomi Osaka eyes extra

Naomi Osaka already is a star at age 23. She has the 4 Grand Slam titles, the record-breaking endorsement offers and the willingness to talk her thoughts to show it.
Now the query is: Where does she go from right here?
It was telling that the second query posed to Osaka on the information convention following her 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jennifer Brady within the Australian Open remaining Saturday — after she took a sip of celebratory bubbly that she stated made her “feel a little bit funny” — was about delivering higher performances at Wimbledon and the French Open.
After all, every of her main championships to date got here on exhausting courts at Melbourne Park (2019, 2021) or the U.S. Open (2018, 2020). She by no means has been previous the third spherical on the All England Club or Roland Garros.
Even extra revealing was Osaka’s response.
Asked whether or not her first non-hard-court Slam trophy will come on clay or grass, she stated: “Hopefully clay, because it’s the one that’s sooner.”
She will not be about biding her time or affected person enchancment.

Fourth main title: ✅@naomiosaka‘s rise to the highest ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Ie1YN7sxZR
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 20, 2021
And she’s been desirous about the place she wants to enhance.
“It was one of her goals this year to play well outside of the hard courts. She’s still very young. It’s time to grow on those surfaces. She also believes she can do well and, I’m sure, with the right preparation, with a few, maybe, tactical (and) technical adjustments, we’re going to do well,” stated her coach, Wim Fissette. “She’s the person that wants to grow.”
Part of what makes Osaka particular is embracing challenges and realizing what she stands for.
That’s been the case off the courtroom and on.
With a racket in her hand, it’s about, as Fissette put it, with the ability to “love big matches and big moments.”
Osaka needed to face 23-time main champion Serena Williams within the semifinals, for instance.
No concern there.

Naomi Osaka overcame these deficits en path to her 4 Grand Slam titles 🤯 @espnW
(h/t @BastienFachan) pic.twitter.com/C7LOKcRSFt
— ESPN (@espn) February 20, 2021
“She was like when I bring my kids to the toy store: They are very excited. And Naomi was excited to go on court with Serena. It’s just beautiful to see,” Fissette stated. “At the end, this is what you train for, right? To be on the biggest stage with the best player of all time, Serena.”
Away from the sport, Osaka says, it took time to search out her voice and categorical her views.
She was born in Japan to a Japanese mom and Haitian father, and she or he moved to the United States when she was 3. Last August, she was the primary tennis professional to hitch athletes from different sports activities in strolling out to protest the police capturing of a Black man in Wisconsin.
“Before I am an athlete,” Osaka tweeted on the time, “I am a black woman.”
On her option to the U.S. Open title in September, Osaka wore masks bearing the names of seven Black victims of violence to attract consideration to racism and police brutality.

Absolute insanity. quantity 4 #ausopen pic.twitter.com/cjFNcl7iQH
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) February 20, 2021
On Saturday, Osaka was requested whether or not there was a message she needed related together with her newest triumph, which made her 4 for 4 in Slam finals.
“Honestly, for me, when everything happened in New York, I got really scared, because I felt like it put me into this light that was a non-athletic light that I’ve never been in before,” she stated. “So I feel like there is a lot of topics that people suddenly started asking me about that I completely didn’t know about at all. For me, I only like to talk when I’m knowledgeable about the subject or at least know, like, one tiny grain of what I’m about to start talking about. So for me, I just came into this tournament just thinking purely about tennis.”
And but, within the aftermath of profitable the trophy, she was prepared to consider a bigger function, too.
Many checked out her win in opposition to Williams as a passing of the mantle. Osaka additionally received their assembly within the 2018 U.S. Open remaining — who might neglect that one? — and has eclipsed the 39-year-old American because the highest-earning feminine athlete due to tens of millions in sponsorship offers.
But to Osaka, Williams continues to be, and at all times will likely be, an idol and an inspiration, a participant whose instance she needed to observe.
And one of the best ways to repay that, Osaka figures, is to carry that function for others.
“Hopefully I play long enough to play a girl that said that I was once her favorite player or something,” Osaka stated. “For me, I think that’s the coolest thing that could ever happen to me. … That’s how the sport moves forward.”