How Tennis Prodigy Naomi Osaka Became The Highest-Paid Female Athlete
Japanese American professional tennis player Naomi Osaka has amazingly amassed an estimated net worth of $60 million. For the last two years, she has been named as the highest paid female athlete by Forbes. She is earning millions from her winnings as well as her endorsements. She even bested Serena Williams, the long-standing highest-paid female athlete. There is no doubt that Naomi Osaka is the image of women's tennis these days. She is an icon for both the sport as well as the popular culture.
She has been named by Forbes as the highest-earning female athlete for two consecutive years. She is also known for her activism and support for the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. She is among the 100 most influential people list by Time for two years. She is currently an inspiration to those who want to dream big and achieve especially when she defeated her idol Serena Williams during the finals of US Open in 2018.
Naomi Osaka was born on October 16, 1997 in Chūō-ku, Osaka Japan to Haitian father Leonard François and Japanese mother Tamaki Osaka. She has an older sister who is a former professional tennis player, Mari. When Naomi was only three years old, her family decided to move to Elmont, New York in Long Island to be with his father’s parents. It was his father who taught her how to play tennis because he was inspired upon watching the Williams sisters compete during the 1999 French Open. With little knowledge and experience as a tennis player, Francois sought to imitate how Richard Williams has trained his daughters so that they would become the best players in the world. Despite never playing the sport, Naomi’s father is determined to teach them tennis since he believes that the blueprint is already there, they just have to follow it.
Leonard François began training Naomi and her sister Mari after they have settled in the U.S. Their family then moved to Florida when Naomi was only eight years old because there are far better opportunities for her to train in the state. She started practicing on the Pembroke Pines public courts in the daytime and was being homeschooled at nighttime. During that time, they have decided that Naomi would be representing Japan even though she was raised in the U.S. They have come to this decision because Naomi was brought up in a Haitian and Japanese culture. This decision was influenced by the lack of interest from the United States Tennis Association as well. However the United States Tennis Association later offered Naomi an opportunity to train at their training center when she was sixteen years old but she declined the offer.
Naomi has never played for the premier international junior tour, ITF Junior Circuit and instead skipped to the ITF Women's Circuit. She played her first qualifying match on her fourteenth birthday on October 16, 2011. After a few months, she had her professional debut in the doubles with her older sister Mari in March 2012. However she did not qualify for her first singles main draw during that time until July of the same year, she had to wait on her seventh attempt to quality. Although she qualified, she lost to her older sister in the semifinals. Naomi never won a title in the ITF level and only managing to finish as a runner up on four different occasions. She first had her finals at the $25K level in June 2013 held at the El Paso, Texas. It was followed when she was able to win and beat her sister in March 2014 held at the Irapuato, Mexico.
A month before she turned sixteen years old, Naomi has turned professional in September 2013 after entering her first two qualifying draws for the WTA Tour as well as the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She was able to compete professionally in Japan through the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. During that time, she was already a rising star in the field especially when she beat the defeated former US Open champion Samantha Stosur at the WTA Tour debut at 2014 Stanford Classic. After two years, she then reached her first ever WTA Final at the Pan Pacific Open in Japan in 2016 to finally enter the top 50 of the rankings of WTA.
With her determination to reach the top, Naomi began the season by playing three tournaments in Australia. During this sketch, her results were good enough to bring her to the Top 100 which then allowed her to play for the WTA Tour level events for the entire year. She also qualified to play for her her first Grand Slam main draw for the Australian Open in which she made it to the third round. Her success progressed even more upon battling with numerous prominent names in the field. Today, she is the most successful female athlete in the world being named as the highest-paid athlete for the last three years since 2019.
Her fame and professional career skyrocketed in the last five years which is reflected to her financial status. She is considered to be one of the most marketable athletes in the world earning $34 million in endorsements alone. Her once inspiration, Serena Williams, is now behind her as a second highest-paid athlete. She has been a brand ambassador for numerous prominent brands including Tag Hauer, Louis Vuitton, Nike, etc. Other than international brands, she also endorses several Japanese companies such as Shiseido, Nissin Foods, the broadcasting station Wowow and Japanese airline All Nippon Airways.
Sources: Celebrity Net Worth, Marca, The Famous People, SCMP
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