Naomi Osaka

[Tresbn00]

Naomi Osaka is playing Serena Williams in the US Open Tennis Finals and Japan is claiming its best Grand Slam singles tennis performance in twenty three years with Osaka in the finals and Kei Nishikori in the semi finals. The news points to Japan last putting a man and woman into the quarter finals of the same Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 1995. I have a slight problem with this. No dispute that Osaka was born in Japan (to a Japanese Mother and Haitian father) but she has lived in the United States since she was three years old. She maintains citizenship in the United States and Japan. She was not playing tennis at age three, does not speak Japanese, which means that her tennis prowess came from the United States. The last eighty seven percent of her life has been in the United States. The problem I have is that the press makes her sound like a poor little Japanese girl when, in fact, she is a privileged New Yorker that trains in Florida with the best tennis professionals available.

[braggin]

Thanks for pointing this out. I am a tennis fan but did not know that about Osaka.

[Yukichan77]

Interesting, I did not know that about her. When I heard she won, I was so happy that someone from Japan won but this adds in a new perspective I hadn't thought of.

[bshee58]

I don't know who she is, so if she is as good as Serena, then will be a good movie.

[mgint]

too much attention toSerena throwing a fit and not enough to a woman who won with grace.

[betlynjua]

too much attention toSerena throwing a fit and not enough to a woman who won with grace.

I totally agree.  Years ago, I used to like Serena.  Now I think she's getting too big of an ego.  She's still very good, I will give her that, but her attitude gets in the way of her talent.

Even though she may have been right about what happened to her, I didn't like at all how it was handled.  That moment should have been for Naomi and not Serena. 

[ghunter]

Everyone needs to let it go, it is over with, yes they make it seems like she is poor little Japan girl.  She need to claim American because that is where she lives and trained, she cannot even speak Japanise.  It is the media that is giving Serena all the attention, I am sure she have moved on.  Naomi is the future of Tennis, but Serena is the best of all time, she was treated different than if it was a man.

[linderlizzie]

Speaking of this match, you might want to check how the ref treated Serena. That's why the Japanese girl won. It's all over the internet. 

[brian8713]

Serena has a book coming out in a month. This was all a publicity stunt on her part.

[aflyingmonkey]

It's all about manipulation.... & identity politics.

I keep hearing how Serena is from Compton here in California, but in reality she moved to Compton when she was 5 from Michigan, then moved to Florida to train when she was 9.  I guess her from "Straight Out of Compton" makes her sound like she came from the "hood" or something - a story of urban struggle perhaps. She never even attended public schools here-but was home-schooled. In reality now, Compton's demographic has changed & it is a majority Latino city... a very unremarkable city, just like any other city in So Cal. 

I still think of her as a local, even though she only lived here 4 years-She's awesome wherever she grew up