CULTURE SHOCKER
Worldly 20th-seeded Osaka right at home in Open semis
Naomi Osaka is 20 years old and come from an amalgam of cultures. Her father is Haitian, her mother is Japanese and she citizenship in both America and Japan, having spent her formative years on Long Island.
She’s also become a tennis force at the U.S. Open, marching to the semifinals with the type of statistical dominance that not even the mighty Serena Williams has matched.
On Wednesday, Osaka, seeded No. 20, needed just 57 minutes to shoo away unranked Lesia Tsurenko in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-1. She did it with business-like precision, abandoning the emotion that carried her through the previous round. She next faces the winner of Wednesday night’s match between Madison Keys and Carla Suarez Navarro.
It was a good day for Japan as just a few hours after Osaka’s big win, fellow countryman Kei Nishikori also advanced to the semifinals after winning a five-set epic (2-6, 6-4, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4) over Marin Cilic.
“I mean, I feel like every young person playing, they want to win Grand Slams and they want to be No. 1, so of course that’s my goal. But again, I’m not trying to put too much pressure on myself,” Osaka said. “I know I’m in a position that I can possibly do that, but I want to really think that I’m grateful to be in the position, That I am in the first place, and I just want to take, like, one point at a time.”
Osaka has never advanced this far in a Grand Slam, and she said it was always an aspiration to win her first major at Flushing Meadows. Growing up in New York between the ages of 3 and 8, Osaka visited the U.S. Open as a spectator. Her hero, back then, was Williams, who waits on the other side of the semifinal bracket.
Osaka’s coach, Sascha Bajin, was Williams’ hitting partner for eight years. He says they’re not comparable. …yet.
“I think (Osaka and Williams) really are different people, because the only similarity they have is that they kind of have the same hair, big hair,” Bajin said, smiling. “I believe that they kind of want to play the same, you know. They are very powerful, big serves, big hitters, both of them. But even on court, Serena is very aggressive, you know, and Naomi, I have to push her to get a fist pump out of her. So the mindset is different from one to the other. Off court, too, Naomi is a little bit more, like, reserved, just a little bit more shy. …On court (Serena’s) more of a boss than Naomi is now. I’m working very hard, and we are all, in the team, working hard to make sure that Naomi one day might own the court like Serena.”
Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan — naturally — and uses her mother’s maiden name for practical reasons. Her father’s surname is Francois. She moved to Long Island, and then to Florida where she still lives and trains. She understands Japanese, but feels most comfortable doing her press conferences in English. She is most ardently followed by the Japanese media, which hasn’t covered a female Grand Slam semifinalist from its country since Damiko Date in 1996.
Although reporters tried to pin down how Osaka identifies herself during Wednesday’s press conference, she wisely passed. it’s okay to have multiple influences.
“My dad’s Haitian, so I grew up in a Haitian household in New York,” she said. “I lived with my grandma. And my mom is Japanese. I grew up with the Japanese culture, too. If you’re saying American, I guess because I lived in America, I also have that, too. So I hope I answered your question. I don’t know.”
Osaka has lost just one set and 15 games combined at the Open, winning three matches without relinquishing more than three games in each. By comparison, Williams has dropped 27 games at this year’s Open. Nobody left in the tournament has spent less time on the court than Osaka.
Her opponent on Wednesday, Tsurenko, complained of a viral infection, but that seemed academic with the way she was dominated.
In any language.