Naomi Osaka

Japanese-American player who won 4 Grand Slam singles titles and became the first Asian player, male or female, to hold the world No. 1 ranking.

Naomi Osaka was born on 16 October 1997 in Osaka, Japan, to Leonard Francois, who is Haitian, and Tamaki Osaka, who is Japanese; the couple met in 1990 and faced significant estrangement from Tamaki's family, who initially disapproved of the relationship. The family moved to Long Island, New York, when Naomi was three, and her father began training her and her older sister Mari in tennis after watching a broadcast of Serena and Venus Williams, drawing inspiration from the path Richard Williams had charted for his own daughters. The family relocated to Florida in 2006 for better training opportunities, and Osaka turned professional in 2013, choosing to represent Japan, the country of her birth and her mother's heritage, over the United States. She won her first Grand Slam title at the 2018 US Open, defeating Serena Williams in a controversial final, becoming the first Japanese player, male or female, to win a major singles title. Osaka reached the world No. 1 ranking in 2019, becoming the first Asian player to top the WTA rankings, and went on to win four Grand Slam titles in total, also capturing the 2019 and 2021 Australian Opens and the 2020 US Open. In 2019, she relinquished her US citizenship, as neither country permits dual citizenship for adults, in order to represent Japan at the Tokyo Olympics. Osaka has become a prominent advocate for mental health awareness, withdrawing from the 2021 French Open citing the toll of media obligations on her wellbeing, and for racial justice, wearing masks bearing the names of Black victims of police violence during her 2020 US Open title run. She announced her pregnancy in January 2023 and welcomed a daughter that July, continuing to compete on the WTA Tour as a proud "Japanese-Haitian-American" whose multicultural identity has become central to her public voice.

Osaka possesses one of the most powerful serves on the WTA tour, regularly hitting serves over 120 mph. Her aggressive baseline game is built around heavy groundstrokes, particularly her devastating forehand that she uses to dictate rallies and hit winners from both defensive and offensive positions.

Osaka broke barriers as the first player of Asian heritage to reach No. 1 and inspired a new generation of tennis players from diverse backgrounds.

• 4 Grand Slam singles titles
• first Asian world No. 1
• world No. 1 for 25 weeks