Hitting Different: A Hard-Court Titan’s New Challenge

“I feel like I’m living in a what-if right now,” Naomi Osaka said after she won her fourth Grand Slam title at this year’s Australian Open. “It’s really weird when you get to that final point, you start trembling because you can think of the ‘what-ifs.’”

Just about everyone who has ever played tennis knows what it’s like to tremble as the finish line approaches and victory is in sight. Few of us, though, have ever experienced what-ifs as monumental as Osaka’s. Even fewer have turned them into reality with the cool efficiency that she has.

What if, Osaka may have wondered when she was younger, I win major titles? What if I become No. 1? What if I beat my idol, Serena Williams, in Arthur Ashe Stadium? By the time she was 21, Osaka had made those dreams come true. But it turns out she was only getting started. In the two seasons since, the Japanese native and Beverly Hills resident has gone beyond what-if, into realms of success she likely never imagined entering.

In 2019, Osaka earned $37.4 million, the most ever for a female athlete in a year. In 2020, she used her status to draw attention to pressing social issues in the United States, and was named one of Sports Illustrated’s Sportspeople of the Year. In 2021, Osaka has picked up right where she left off. At the Australian Open, she saved two match points against Garbine Muguruza, faced down Williams again in the semifinals, and extended her record in the final three rounds at majors to 12–0.

All of which has left Osaka confronting a new what-if: Is this soft-spoken 23-year-old the new face of the game? Can she define her WTA era the way Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena defined theirs?

For now, Osaka isn’t letting this particular what-if get into her head. Asked earlier this year how she was “grappling with being the face of women’s tennis,” she shut the idea down quickly.

“Honestly, I don’t feel that way,” she said. “I don’t know, there’s so many interesting new people. I think I’m one of the new people. As long as Serena’s here, I think she’s the face of women’s tennis.”

I think a lot of young people can see themselves in her, how present she has been in speaking out, in figuring out what she wants to stand for, and stepping into new roles.—Chanda Rubin

It’s not that Osaka doesn’t want to have fans, or a place in the sport’s history. When she talks about her career goals, she says, “Hopefully I play long enough to play a girl that said I was once her favorite player. I think that’s the coolest thing that could ever happen to me. I just think that’s how the sport moves forward.”

But Osaka also understands she can’t be all things to all people, and she’ll only stress herself out by trying.

“Let’s say I play a match and I slam my racquet,” she said. “I would get, like, very nervous about it, because I wasn’t sure if I would get very bad press over not being a great role model.

“Over the years I’ve just realized, like, the only thing I can do is be myself. There’s 500 other tennis players if you want to pick to be your role model. So I feel it’s a really big honor that there’s little kids that like me, that come to my matches and cheer for me. But at the same time, I don’t want to weigh it too heavily on myself, because I’m still growing as a person, and hopefully they grow with me.”

Osaka may be unwilling to proclaim herself the future of the women’s game, but other veterans of the WTA scene aren’t so hesitant.

“I can see the possibilities,” ESPN’s Pam Shriver says. “She appeals to an important demographic, younger people, that tennis hasn’t been so focused on. Teens and [those in their] 20s can connect with her diversity, the actions she took on social justice—not just words, actions.”

Shriver says her 15-year-old daughter has been an Osaka fan since she saw her give her first champion’s speech, at Indian Wells in 2018. That day a nervous Osaka stammered her way through what she said was “probably going to be the worse acceptance speech of all time.”

“My daughter was 12 then, and she said she could relate to the shyness,” Shriver says. “She just felt like Naomi was someone who seemed real and authentic.”

Tennis Channel’s Chanda Rubin agrees that Osaka “is in the thick of” many of today’s youth trends.

“I think a lot of young people can see themselves in her, how present she has been in speaking out, in figuring out what she wants to stand for, and stepping into new roles,” Rubin says. “She was the blueprint for these new champions like Iga Swiatek, Sofia Kenin and Bianca Andreescu, who have been pretty fearless. She showed you don’t have to play your opponent’s résumé; you can play the ball.”

Osaka was born in 1997, often considered the first year of Gen Z. What defines this ascendant generation? They’re more racially diverse than their predecessors; they’re comfortable living online; they’re politically progressive; and they’re willing to talk about mental-health issues, which may come from having already been hit by the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Osaka embodies many of those characteristics, starting with her own diverse background. Her father is Haitian, her mother is Japanese, and she has lived most of her life in the U.S. Last summer, she joined protests after George Floyd’s murder; this summer she hopes more than anything to represent Japan at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Every day as I watch Naomi, I am surprised. She has a lot of different traits,” Osaka’s trainer, Yutaka Nakamura, told The Mainichi last year. “…She can be a lot of things, and I think that’s what makes her special.”

We’ve already seen that Osaka won’t sacrifice her mental health—or at least her happiness—for glory. In 2019, she split with her coach, Sascha Bajin, shortly after he helped her reach No. 1.

“I don’t want myself to think to be successful I have to put success over happiness,” Osaka said, “because if I’m not happy being around certain people, I’m not going to torture myself.”

So far, Osaka’s capacity for growth may be her defining feature, and a key to her appeal. She’s willing to try new approaches and shed old ones, even when they seemed to work for her.

Focusing on being No. 1, playing to prove herself, mixing politics with sports: Osaka says she has tried them all, and, for now, left them all behind.

On being No. 1: “I felt when I was No. 1 [in 2019], I had to do more. I feel like I had this responsibility to sort of try to carry it the way [Roger] Federer and the Big 3 did, like Serena was for such a long time. I put a lot of pressure on myself that way.”

On highlighting social-justice issues at the US Open: “When everything happened in New York, I got really scared because I felt like it put me into this light that was a non-athletic light, that I’ve never been in before. I feel like there’s a lot of topics that people suddenly started asking me that I completely didn’t know about at all. For me, I only like to talk when I’m knowledgeable about the subject…So for me I just came into [the Australian Open] just thinking purely about tennis.”

On playing to prove herself: “I think there’s a difference in my emotions and the way that the last time I won [in Melbourne], I was kind of playing off anger, in a way. Just because I felt like I wanted to stamp my place on the tour…And this time around I’m more, I would say, at peace with where I am.”

Osaka’s traveling team has helped her find that peace. The core members include her mother, Tamaki; her trainer, Nakamura; and her coach, Wim Fissette. The trust they’ve developed allows Osaka to feel as if she’s playing for more than just herself.

“I know everyone says tennis is a solo sport,” Osaka said, “but I have always been surrounded by people that put in so many hours with me, and we do everything together.” A big part of her motivation now comes from wanting “to share every experience that I can with the people that sort of do everything with me.”

Fissette has played a big role in lifting Osaka from a low point in early 2020 to the heights of early 2021. She says that opening up to him has let her “express the nerves that I feel, instead of bottling it all up.”

Tennis-wise, Fissette has helped Osaka make her returns more consistent; add weight to her ground strokes; change directions with the ball more efficiently; and experiment with slice and drop shots. But it was the advice he gave her after a tough defeat last year that has benefited her the most.

“The biggest thing that I think Wim’s taught me is that after Fed Cup [in February 2020], I lost really bad, and for me that was really, like, life-changing,” Osaka said. “He just told me my life won’t change if I lose, it can only get better from winning. That’s something that I can’t really fully control, but as long as I try my best, my percentages or my odds of winning will increase.”

Now Osaka and Fissette face a new challenge: improving her results at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. She’s never been past the third round at either event, and hasn’t played them since 2019.

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According to Fissette, the strategy is simple: “Play tournaments and win matches.”

“The way she moves, the way she has the easy power, the way she can build the points, there are a lot of things that I see why she could really perform well on clay,” Fissette said. “But she needs matches and she needs confidence in those matches she has expressed already she’s a bit afraid of falling or slipping on the court... I don’t think anyone (in the Top 20) has spent less time on grass than Naomi and confidence in a certain game plan.”

Fissette said that Osaka reminds him of one of his former players, Kim Clijsters, at a point when she wasn’t playing on clay often.

“[Kim] was playing great tennis, but as soon as she would miss a few balls, she would doubt a lot of things,” Fissette said. “She would doubt her game plan, she would [say], like, ‘Oh, maybe I should have gone bigger on this ball, maybe I should have been more patient on this ball.’

“I think when you don’t have a lot of experience of success on those surfaces, that’s easy to start doubting.”

Grass should be better suited to Osaka’s game. She has the serve, including the slider wide in the deuce court, and the ground-stroke power that traditionally spells success at Wimbledon. What she doesn’t have right now is confidence that she can stay upright.

“On grass she has expressed already she’s a bit afraid of falling or slipping on the court,” Fissette said. “I don’t think anyone [in the Top 20] has spent less time on grass than Naomi has so far.

“But that’s a challenge, and I think if you spend enough time, she’s a very quick learner. She’s a smart girl. I’m sure she’s gonna be fine.”

She has expressed already she’s a bit afraid of falling or slipping on the court...I don’t think anyone (in the Top 20) has spent less time on grass than Naomi.—Wim Fissette

For all of her success on hard courts, Osaka won’t be an era-defining champion if she can’t make herself a contender in Paris and London. But she’s too ambitious, competitive and talented not to do whatever it takes to master the clay and grass games.

“I want to win the French and Wimbledon,” she said in Australia. “It’s something that you feel like you want to complete a set of something that you don’t have.”

As Osaka continues her rise in 2021, Serena may be contemplating retirement. Before she goes, perhaps we could ask the tennis gods to arrange for a final between them at Wimbledon this summer. Would Serena win No. 24? Would Osaka grab the torch from her?

It’s a what-if that should make any tennis fan tremble, with delight, to contemplate.