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While the pecking order in men’s tennis has been regulated for years thanks to the “big 3”, the women’s circuit is desperately looking for new decorative figures.
After all, Serena Williams (38) won’t be playing forever. Its main title number 23 and so far last is now over 3.5 years ago (Australia 2017). There were ten different winners in the next twelve Grand Slams. Only Romanian Simona Halep and Naomi Osaka triumphed twice.
The Japanese are more likely to take over the scepter from Serena Williams. Not just because she played her youth idol Williams on the wall in the 2018 finals in New York or because she replaced her as the world’s highest-paid female athlete in 2020.
Leader of the protest movement
In recent weeks, Osaka has become the most important political voice on the WTA tour. In protest against racial profiling and police violence, she boycotted her semifinals at the preparatory tournament in New York. She forced the tennis scene to show solidarity with NBA basketball stars and to suspend games for a day. “Before being an athlete, I am a black woman,” she explained.
At the US Open, Osaka continues the protest, more clearly than any other player. In each round he wears a new protective mask with a different name: Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and, most recently, in the semi-finals, Philando Castile. All have been victims of police violence or crimes of racism in the United States.
“I hate when people say that athletes are only there to entertain themselves and should not interfere in politics,” Osaka told the Wall Street Journal. “First of all, it’s about human rights. Second, what should give them the right to speak for me? By this logic, an Ikea employee should only talk about furniture. “What is meant by this is the right-wing political field in the United States, which, among other things, wants to keep NBA stars around LeBron James away from social debates under the motto “Shut up and dribble.”
It’s about more than an important title
The fact that Osaka is so committed has to do with her life story: As the daughter of a Japanese woman and a Haitian woman, she came into contact with discrimination at a young age. Her grandfather once did not want to know anything about her mother because she had married a black woman. Osaka was 3 years old when their families left Japan for New York because of this.
Now he’s fighting for more than just his third major title in New York, this melting pot of cultures. “The best I can do is get people to start Googling the names of the victims and learn their stories,” Osaka said.
She has already done her part by reaching the final. On Saturday night (10 pm) she will wear her seventh and final mask against Victoria Azarenka (31, WTA 27).
