Naomi Osaka’s stunning star turn at the U.S. Open last weekend has posed a question: Why did she win the championship playing under the Japanese banner when she is an American citizen who has lived in the U.S. since she was 3 years old?
For U.S. tennis officials, the answer is a tale of missed opportunities and unrecognized potential. The U.S. Tennis Association tried to recruit her, but not until she was 16 years old. By that time, Osaka had already committed to the Japan Tennis Association—even though it didn’t provide her with any loans, coaching, equipment or conditioning.
On the heels of her U.S. Open win, Osaka is blossoming into a star. She earned $3.8 million by winning the U.S. Open, and has racked up more than $7 million in prize money in her career. She is now ranked No. 7 in the world and has deals with the Yonex racket company,
, Citizen Watch Co. and Wowow Inc., a broadcasting company. She is also sponsored by Adidas and on Thursday will announce an undisclosed car company partnership.
But her journey to the top took place largely out of public view, her potential hard for anyone to identify.
Osaka, 20 years old, was born in Osaka, Japan. She and her family moved to the U.S. when she was 3 and lived on Long Island until 2006, and then moved to Florida. She knows the Japanese language, but usually responds to Japanese questions in English. Her mother, Tamaki Osaka, is from Japan. Her father, Leonard Francois, is from Haiti.
“We made the decision that Naomi would represent Japan at an early age,” Osaka’s parents said in an email. “She was born in Osaka and was brought up in a household of Japanese and Haitian culture. Quite simply, Naomi and her sister Mari have always felt Japanese so that was our only rationale. It was never a financially motivated decision nor were we ever swayed either way by any national federation.”
Osaka started representing Japan when she was 10. She mostly skipped junior tournaments and instead played dozens of small International Tennis Federation events. The ITF Womens Circuit is rarely seen on television and gives players a limited public profile. Even when Osaka had a high enough ranking to play junior Grand Slam tournaments, she declined to enter them.
She was 16 when the USTA offered her a spot in its program. Brendan McIntyre, a USTA spokesman, said his organization’s training package included numerous weeks with José Higueras, who was then the USTA director of coaching, and strength and conditioning with Pat Etcheberry, who has worked with many star players, including Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Justine Henin. The USTA does not pay players they develop.
“We talked to her and we offered her some really good services,” said Ola Malmqvist, the USTA’s head of women’s tennis. “We had her in the Boca [Raton] training center when we were there.”
The USTA had a better chance when Osaka was younger, but didn’t see much potential in her, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s common in tennis: It’s nearly impossible to predict if children have the physical skills and talent to become competitive professionals.
Until the last few years, Francois taught Osaka how to play tennis. He would take her and her sister to public courts. They later played at Harold Solomon Tennis Academy and then the ProWorld Tennis Academy in Delray Beach. Osaka’s mother worked an office job in Miami. She would drive nearly an hour from Boca and work from 9 to 5. She would then come home and cook.
Francois was, at best, a recreational player with no knowledge about technique. So he studied what Serena Williams’s father, Richard, had done in coaching his own daughter, and copied that approach. Francois became obsessed with videos and instruction books, and with deadly swings (Osaka, who is 5-foot-11, is among the game’s most powerful hitters).
When Osaka was 18, she and her father began to practice at the Evert Tennis Academy, which was five minutes from their home. After up-and-coming and professional players would work out in the morning, Osaka and her father would show up when the courts were empty and practice from noon to 2 p.m. At that time Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and other talents practiced there, too. Chris Evert said Osaka did not stand out.
“She had a lot of raw talent and she hit the ball a ton, but she wasn’t moving and she was making a lot of errors,” Evert said.
Around the same time, Osaka got her first professional coach, the well-regarded David Taylor from Australia. In December last year Osaka switched to her current coach, Sascha Bajin.
Since training with Taylor and now Bajin, Osaka’s game has improved more quickly than anyone expected. Her movement, once a liability, was a strength at the Open, largely because of her speed and improved footwork. Rick Macci is a long-time instructor who worked with the Williams sisters when they were young. He watched Saturday’s final and was astounded by Osaka’s performance.
“Mentally, I feel she’s the best female tennis player that I’ve seen come along since Serena,” Macci said. “Even the last game, she didn’t blink.”
Even though tennis is an individual sport, there is a lot of pride in a player’s country, especially for events like the Fed Cup and the Olympics. Shinji Yoshikawa, the JTA coach for the women’s national team, was at the U.S. Open to watch Osaka’s final, but not in her box in the stands.
“She chose us,” said Mari Sakamoto, a representative of the JTA. “All the staff in the JTA are so excited. We are very proud to have Naomi as a Japanese player.”
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