{"id":1043225,"date":"2019-09-10T20:56:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T00:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1043225"},"modified":"2019-09-10T20:56:04","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T00:56:04","slug":"5-intriguing-facts-about-tennis-star-naomi-osaka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/5-intriguing-facts-about-tennis-star-naomi-osaka\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Intriguing Facts About Tennis Star Naomi Osaka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Champion tennis player Naomi Osaka faced fierce competitors, such as Serena Williams, on her path to becoming ranked #1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). While temporarily slipping to second place in the rankings after Ashleigh Barty defeated Osaka in June 2019<\/a>, Osaka then beat Coco Gauff<\/a> in August. After this momentous win over the fifteen-year-old Gauff, Osaka is once again enjoying her WTA #1 ranking<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Osaka's personal life and cultural identity are making news as much as her professional career. When 21-year old Osaka made Time's list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2019, Chris Evert wrote that Naomi Osaka represents what our multicultural future is all about<\/a>. With a Japanese mother and a Haitian father<\/a>, Naomi was raised primarily in the U.S., along with her sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Osaka's father met her mother while visiting Japan when he was a college student. Currently, however, Osaka represents Japan when she competes, causing considerable international attention. Here are five fascinating facts which show that Naomi Osaka is a unique individual with a truly interesting background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naomi Osaka was born in Japan but raised in the U.S.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Her mother is Tamaki Osaka, from Japan, and her father, Leonard Fran\u00e7ois, is from Haiti. The couple met when Fran\u00e7ois was a student at NYU. Osaka was born in Japan<\/a> but was brought to the U.S. when she was three years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was brought to her paternal grandparents' home in Long Island at the age of three and raised in the U.S. in a Hatian-Japanese household. After she graduated from elementary school, her father decided to homeschool her, enrolling her in a virtual high school program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was coached by her dad<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Leonard Fran\u00e7ois was inspired by the way Richard Williams' taught his daughters Serena and Venus how to play tennis.<\/a> He was especially impressed that their father claimed not to play the game himself. Osaka's father then used that same approach to coach his girls from a very young age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during that very early age in their lives, Osaka's parents decided, that both girls would eventually represent Japan when they were ready to compete internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naomi Osaka was just 20 years old when she won the U.S. Open<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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