‘Naomi Osaka’ docuseries takes intimate have a look at tennis star

Those searching for definitive solutions about Naomi Osaka and the way she copes with the calls for of her profession and fame shouldn’t anticipate finding them in a brand new Netflix docuseries in regards to the four-time Grand Slam champion.
It’s the tennis star’s unresolved questions which might be the center of “Naomi Osaka,” director-producer Garrett Bradley stated of the collection that was taped over a two-year interval beginning with the 2019 U.S. Open. Production concluded in early 2021 earlier than Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open.
The three-part collection debuting Friday is a contemplative, intimate have a look at a younger athlete discovering her means.
Film of main tournaments, wins and losses, is interwoven with scenes of Osaka’s time with household and her boyfriend, the rapper Cordae; her coaching and enterprise calls for; Osaka’s reflections on her profession, multiracial identification and the dying of mentor Kobe Bryant, and her choice to protest police killings of Black women and men.
“It was really important for me to not go into the project with an agenda or really even with an opinion,” Bradley, a 2021 Oscar nominee for the documentary “Time,” stated.
“I really tried to open myself up to her world and where she was at, and tried to understand the sort of essence of who she was.”
As filming progressed, she stated, it grew to become clear that the collection’ basis can be the conundrums confronted not solely by Osaka however society at massive.
Naomi Osaka posing with the 2021 Australian Open trophy. (Twitter/AusOpen)
Those inquiries are “connected to value systems and self-definition, and how one can create a more holistic understanding of themselves in any given environment that they find themselves in,” stated Bradley, whose fellow producers embrace LeBron James, beneath the umbrella of his SpringHill manufacturing firm.
Osaka, 23, who was not made obtainable for an interview, withdrew from the French Open final May, citing “huge waves of anxiety” earlier than talking to the media and revealing that she has suffered lengthy bouts of melancholy.
She additionally skipped the just-ended Wimbledon, together with her agent saying she wished private time, however is anticipated to compete within the upcoming Tokyo Olympics for her native Japan. Osaka was just some years outdated when she, her sister and their Japanese mom and Haitian father moved to the United States.
In a Time journal essay printed July 8, Osaka wrote that, “Believe it or not, I am naturally introverted and do not court the spotlight. I always try to push myself to speak up for what I believe to be right, but that often comes at a cost of great anxiety.”

“I do hope that people can relate and understand it’s O.K. to not be O.K., and it’s O.K. to talk about it. There are people who can help, and there is usually light at the end of any tunnel,” she stated, thanking Michelle Obama, Michael Phelps and different public figures for providing help.
The Netflix docuseries contains footage of Osaka and her sister, Mari, on the court docket as children, with the tennis star recalling spending not less than eight hours a day at observe, including, “I was just tired.”
Mari Osaka, 25, additionally performed skilled tennis however stated in a social media put up in March that she was retiring from the game as a result of it was “a journey which I didn’t enjoy ultimately.” The docuseries sketches a portrait of Naomi Osaka as considerate and pushed to succeed however struggling to deal with her sport’s calls for and her future.
At one second of self-reflection she says, “So what am I, if not a good tennis player?”
Filmmaker Bradley cautions that the collection shouldn’t be seen as definitive, however slightly a snapshot of a short interval in a life that continues to “evolve and grow.”
“This moment that we captured was her in the process of a learning curve, which I think she directly articulates really beautifully, (that) there are elements of fame that are hard to be prepared for,” Bradley stated.

I first teamed up with @Barbie in 2019 and as we speak we’re introducing the Barbie Role Model Naomi Osaka doll. I hope each little one is reminded that they are often and do something: https://t.co/GrPuW1WkMn
Fun reality : (the doll is carrying my outfit from the 2020 Australian Open lol) pic.twitter.com/DlL98lNfQj
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) July 12, 2021
“The sustenance that she finds is in accepting where she is currently in this moment, and certainly in her family and in her loved ones, but also is in finding her own voice. And that includes choosing when to use it and when not to.”
Asked how she perceived Osaka’s emotional well-being, Bradley stated she considers her “an incredibly strong and really brilliant person.”
“She’s in control of her own narrative, and I think that’s a beautiful thing,” she stated.