Osaka is a Japanese tennis player who is ranked World Number 1. She has won four Grand Slam titles and is the first Asian woman to win all four.
She is also a social justice activist who frequently wears face masks to support the Black Lives Matter movement. She was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2020, and she won the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award.
Naomi Osaka was born in Japan to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother. She moved to the United States when she was three and began to learn tennis. She and her sister practiced together by day and homeschooled at night.
When she was 15 she started to compete professionally. She became the youngest female tennis player to reach the top 40 and won her first WTA title in Indian Wells in 2018.
Her rise to fame was rapid. In just two years she went from being a top-100 player to becoming the world’s No. 1 and she became a household name.
She has been a role model for many women, including other athletes. She also spoke out about her mental health and was a catalyst for others to do the same.
In May 2020, she backed out of the French Open after she revealed that she had suffered from long bouts of depression. She later withdrawn from the Australian Open and did not play at Wimbledon in 2021. Her mental health issues and outspokenness about social justice issues drew criticism from the leaders of tournaments, who threatened to remove her from future events.