Naomi OsakaThe 28-year-old trailblazer, a four-time Grand Slam champion, will play in the second week of Wimbledon for the first time today.
She went through her first three matches without dropping a set, losing more than three games in a set just once, and looking a long way from the player she was. At other points in her career she seemed to be almost allergic to grass swings and seemed to have given up hope of having any success there.
The surge in results has coincided with a series of Grand Slam fashion statements from Osaka, who has used her participation in three major tournaments this year to showcase the form of self-expression she values most alongside tennis. At Wimbledon, she wore a white ensemble inspired by Japanese ceremonial dress, including a kimono-style dress embroidered with cherry blossoms and cranes, created in collaboration with designer Hana Yagi.
Osaka has a creative team and works with designers herself; Nike makes court apparel. They became the talk of the sport and at press conferences in Osaka.
This kind of thing will drive many athletes and tennis players crazy. They come to the arena to practice a craft they have been studying for almost their entire lives. They are athletes. They want to talk about their sport.
Not Osaka, at least not entirely. After a decade of a career that has moved up, down and sideways, one of the world’s most famous and exposed introverts may have finally found a comfort zone in tennis, thanks to what has arguably been her greatest passion.