Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka (Japanese: 大坂 なおみ, Hepburn: Ōsaka Naomi, Japanese pronunciation: [oːsaka naomi], born October 16, 1997) is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion, with two Australian Open and two US Open titles. Her seven titles on the WTA Tour include two at the Premier Mandatory level. At the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, Osaka won her first two major titles in back-to-back tournaments, becoming the first Japanese player to win a major singles title and the first woman to win successive major singles titles since Serena Williams in 2015.

Born in Japan to a Haitian-American father and a Japanese mother, Osaka has lived and trained in the United States since age three. She came to prominence at age 16 when she defeated former US Open champion Samantha Stosur in her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 Stanford Classic. Two years later, she reached her first WTA final at the 2016 Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and entered the top 50 of the WTA rankings. Osaka broke into the upper echelon of women's tennis in 2018, winning her first WTA title at the Indian Wells Open, then defeating Williams in the final of the US Open. In 2021, suffering from depression and other issues, Osaka retired from the French Open, dropped out of Wimbledon, lost early at the US Open, and ended her season early. She took maternity leave in 2023 and returned to competition in 2024.

Osaka is one of the world's most marketable athletes. In 2020, she ranked eighth among athletes in endorsement income and had the highest-ever annual income of any female athlete. Osaka is also recognized as an activist, having showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. She was named one of the 2020 Sports Illustrated Sportspersons of the Year for her activism, particularly during her US Open championship run, and was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2019, 2020, and 2021. She was the 2021 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she became the first tennis player to light the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony.

On the court, Osaka has an aggressive playing style with a powerful serve that can reach 201 kilometers per hour (125 mph).