Naomi Osaka is a Japanese-born tennis star ranked No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles.
She is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, and is the reigning champion at the US Open. Her six WTA titles on the WTA Tour also include two at the Premier Mandatory level. Osaka won her first two Grand Slam singles titles in back-to-back Grand Slam tournaments at the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, and is the first player to achieve this feat since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.
Born in Japan to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, Osaka has lived and trained in the United States since she was three years old. She came to prominence at the age of sixteen when she defeated former US Open champion Samantha Stosur in her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 Stanford Classic. Two years later, she reached her first WTA final at the 2016 Pan Pacific Open in Japan to enter the top 50 of the WTA rankings. Osaka made her breakthrough into the upper echelon of women’s tennis in 2018 when she won her first WTA title at the Indian Wells Open. Later in the year, she defeated 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams in the final of the US Open to become the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title. From 2018 through 2020, she has won a Grand Slam singles title in three consecutive years.
Osaka is one of the most marketable athletes in the world, building on her status as a Grand Slam singles champion, her multi-ethnic background, and her candid personality. She was the highest-earning female athlete of all time by annual income in 2020, and ranked 8th among all athletes in endorsement income. On the court, Osaka has an aggressive playing style with a powerful serve that can reach 200 kilometres per hour (124 mph). She was included on Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in both 2019 and 2020.[1][2]
