|
Post by Admin on Oct 18, 2020 20:44:19 GMT
This is how champions relax! After Naomi Osaka took home her second U.S. Open Women’s Singles title last month, she’s now basking on the beach in white bikini for her 23rd birthday. http://instagram.com/p/CGXN4_MJejT After one of the most powerful comebacks in recent U.S. Open history, the 2020 Women’s Singles champ Naomi Osaka is ready for some rest and relaxation. The inspiring tennis sensation headed to the Caribbean to celebrate turning 23 on Oct. 16. She shared three photos to her Instagram page on the eve of her big day, wearing a white bikini while chilling at the shore of the clear, aqua blue sea. http://instagram.com/p/CFuaZBRJVND Naomi could be seen in the first photo with her normally curly hair cascading in long, thin braids. She sat in the sugary white sand while wearing a white cover up over her two-piece, and had a scrunchie wrapped around her wrist in case she wanted to put up her hair and go for a swim. http://instagram.com/p/CGaRhkaJU-8 Naomi showed off her incredible style sense with a zebra print frame on her sunglasses, with matching long dangle earrings. She added several delicate gold necklaces and a gold ankle bracelet with tiny charms on it. In the accompanying photos, Naomi stood up for fans to get a better look at her beach ensemble, as white sand stuck to her shin from kneeling on the beach. In the third picture, Naomi outstretched her arm so that her followers could get a better look at her fit professional athlete figure in the chic white bikin
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 12, 2020 6:37:33 GMT
In many respects, tennis player Naomi Osaka has grown up right before our eyes. Known for being understated and shy when she first emerged as a top contender in 2018 with her surprise upset over her idol, Serena Williams, since then, Osaka has come into her own as one of her sport’s brightest stars. Between June 2019 and June 2020, her combined prize money and endorsements made her the highest-paid female athlete of all time, according to Forbes. With that glow-up has come a much bigger platform, and Osaka has wielded her voice with intention and care, as evidenced in her latest debut as a cover girl, this time for none other than American Vogue. Osaka is stunning on the cover of the January 2021 issue, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. Wearing an asymmetrical striped Louis Vuitton dress, Osaka looks like a young woman in complete possession of her talents, her natural curls lifted by a gentle breeze (or, in all likelihood, a fan), her makeup minimal and natural. But what has made Osaka special this year is her emergence as tennis’ foremost voice on racial justice issues. The 23-year-old spoke at length about her interest in racial justice, which began when she was just a teenager living in Florida. “I feel like this is something that was building up in me for a while,” Osaka told the magazine. “I watched the Trayvon stuff go down. For me that was super-scary.” As the story notes, she was 14 and living in Boca Raton, just three hours north of where Trayvon was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, an aggressive neighborhood vigilante. “I travel so much during the year that I don’t always know the news that’s centered in the U.S. But then when the pandemic hit, there were no distractions. I was forced to look.”
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 28, 2020 6:47:05 GMT
With tennis, like so much of the world, shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, Naomi Osaka found herself with time to read and think.
And while she won the U.S. Open for her third Grand Slam title, she also stood out for speaking out about racial injustice and police brutality.
As noteworthy in 2020 for her activism away from the tennis court as her success on it, Osaka was selected by The Associated Press as the Female Athlete of the Year in results revealed Sunday after a vote by AP member sports editors and AP beat writers.
“It was difficult to be isolated from my family for large parts of the year, but that’s nothing compared to others. It was sad to watch and read the news of people suffering from COVID-19, and the economic and social effect on so many — losing jobs, mental health. It was such a tough year for so many people,” Osaka wrote in an email interview. “And then watching the police injustices like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake (to name just a few) in the summer broke my heart. I am proud of my U.S. Open victory, but more so that I got people talking about the real issues.”
Osaka collected 18 of 35 first-place votes and a total of 71 points.
WNBA Finals MVP Breanna Stewart was next with nine first-place votes and 60 points, followed by Sarah Fuller, the Vanderbilt soccer player who kicked for the school’s football team, with one first-place vote and 24 points.
LeBron James was announced Saturday as the AP Male Athlete of the Year.
Billie Jean King, a 12-time Grand Slam singles title winner and a pioneering advocate for decades, praised Osaka for positioning “herself as a leader not only in women’s tennis but in all of sports and a force for change in our society.”
“She successfully completed the difficult task of taking excellence in sports performance and using that platform to succeed outside of sports on a much bigger stage,” King told the AP. “She ignited a conversation on social justice, the results of which were bigger than tennis, larger than sports, and in doing so raised the bar for all those who want to leverage the gifts and talents we have to make a difference in our world.”
Osaka went 16-3 during the coronavirus-truncated tennis calendar — the professional tours took about a five-month hiatus; Wimbledon was canceled for the first time since 1945 — and ended the year ranked No. 3.
The defining stretch of Osaka’s season came in August and September, when she compiled an 11-match winning streak that included the U.S. Open.
It was during a tuneup tournament in New York that Osaka — whose father is Haitian and mother is Japanese — declared she would not play her semifinal, joining athletes from the NBA and elsewhere in protesting the police shooting of Blake.
“There are clearly so many worthy issues. This one especially resonated with me because of my own personal up-bringing; and also while the tennis tour was paused, I was able to watch and read news at length for the first time in my life. This summer in the U.S., tensions were high and reached boiling point,” Osaka said. “It was the right time for me to speak up.”
Taking her lead, that tournament shut down completely for a day.
“Her activism has shone a light on how we as individuals and sports leagues can collectively make an impact,” WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon said. “Not only is she a phenomenal tennis player, but she also demonstrates how athletes have an opportunity to use their platform for something bigger than the game or themselves. Her actions are nothing short of inspiring and she is so very deserving of this recognition.”
During the U.S. Open, Osaka brought attention to Black victims of violence by arriving for matches wearing face masks bearing the names of Floyd, Taylor, Tamir Rice, Elijah McClain, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery and Philando Castile.
“To be honest, I really didn’t stop to think about what others would think of my actions. Other people’s opinions weren’t going to stop me from doing what I know in my heart was the right thing to do,” Osaka said. “The strong voices of Colin (Kaepernick) and LeBron were certainly positive influences for me and gave me strength in my own convictions.”
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 2, 2021 4:57:59 GMT
Few athletes in any sport made as much of their time during the game’s spring shutdown as Naomi Osaka. Along with joining the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis, she figured out what she wanted from her career: to use her talents on the court to make a statement off of it. Spurred on by the chance to broadcast the names of African-Americans who had died at the hands of police, she won the US Open and embraced her platform. Will Osaka be able to find that kind of inspiration halfway across the world? The last time she won the US Open, she backed it up by winning the Australian Open. If she plays close to her best, she could do it again.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 3, 2021 19:39:05 GMT
Naomi Osaka had a rather eventful 2020 even if she didn’t play many tournaments (4) and she hasn’t traveled much. The world no.3 took part only in 4 competitions, but she strongly hit the headlines with her activism, especially when she was playing the US Open. The Japanese ace became more and more loved by her huge fan base for being so active in defending the community of color. Naomi is currently in the US where she has been fine-tuning her preparation for her 2021. In the meantime, she posted some of her best 2020 pictures on Instagram for her fans’ happiness.
|
|