naomi osaka wiki : Naomi Osaka (大坂 なおみ Ōsaka Naomi, born 16 October 1997) is a Japanese professional tennis player. She first came to prominence at the age of sixteen when she defeated former US Open champion Samantha Stosur at the 2014 Bank of the West Classic, which was her first time in the main draw of a WTA tournament. She reached her first WTA final two years later at the 2016 Toray Pan Pacific Open, which took her into the top 50 in the world rankings. Her breakthrough year was 2018. In March of that year she won the Indian Wells tournament, beating former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova in the first round. She is the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles tournament, defeating Serena Williams in the final of the 2018 US Open. Osaka has reached a career-high ranking of world No. 7 on September 10, 2018.
Naomi Osaka was born in Chūō-ku, Osaka to a Haitian father, Leonard "San" François, and a Japanese mother, Tamaki Osaka.
Naomi and her older sister Mari were given their mother's maiden name for practical reasons when the family lived in Japan.Her father was born in Haiti and went to New York University before moving to Japan, where he met her mother and later married her.
In racially homogeneous Japan, Osaka is considered hāfu, which is Japanese for biracial. Her Japanese grandfather was furious when he found out that her mother was romantically involved with a black man. As a result of the interracial relationship, her mother did not have contact with her family for over ten years. In a 2016 interview, Osaka said: "When I go to Japan, people are confused. From my name, they don’t expect to see a black girl."
Osaka and her sister Mari, who is also a professional tennis player, have played together in doubles. Osaka moved at the age of three with her family to the United States where she currently resides in Florida. She graduated from Elmont Alden Terrace Primary and Broward Virtual High School. Her tennis club was the Harold Solomon Institute (Florida Tennis SBT Academy), ProWorld Tennis Academy.
After her win against Serena Williams, Osaka's grandfather stated that he wept watching his granddaughter on television. "It still hasn't sunk in for me yet. The moment she won, my wife and I rejoiced together. I was so happy, I cried," he told public broadcaster NHK. "I hope she stays healthy and continues her good work. I also hope she wins at the Tokyo Olympics [in 2020]," he said.
Osaka has been described as Japanese, American, Japanese-American, American-Japanese, Haitian-Japanese, and Haitian-American-Japanese Being raised in the United States while having a mother who is Japanese and a father who is Haitian-American contributes to Osaka's multi-ethnic identity. Osaka has dual Japanese and American citizenship but she is not fully fluent in Japanese.
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