Naomi Osaka Short biography
Naomi Osaka (大坂 なおみ, Ōsaka 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 also 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.
Osaka was born in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan to Tamaki Osaka, a Japanese woman, and Leonard François, a Haitian man. Her parents met when her father was visiting Hokkaido while he was a college student in New York. Osaka has an older sister, Mari, who is a former professional tennis player. The sisters were given their mother's family name for practical reasons when the family lived in Japan.
Osaka began playing tennis at the age of three, following in the footsteps of her sister. She moved to the United States with her family when she was three years old and began training at the Harold Solomon Tennis Institute in Broward County, Florida. Osaka turned professional in 2013 and made her WTA Tour debut in 2014.
