‘Tennis is still a sport for the white community,’ Naomi Osaka’s mother reveals the hardships and acts of racism towards her family in the USA
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Naomi Osaka's mother
4-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka‘s mother, Tamaki Osaka recently published a book “Through the Tunnel: Just One More Day, My Days of Chasing a Reckless Dream” which depicts her life from being born in a small Japanese town to raising up one of the best tennis players of the contemporary world.
In her book, Tamaki Osaka speaks about how difficult it was for her to start a new life in the USA with her husband Leonard Francois. She talked about struggling financially and socially and enlightened the readers with what was the trigger point for her to introduce her daughters, Mari and Naomi to tennis.
She revealed that her elder daughter, Mari, was very athletic and with the growth of the Williams sisters- Venus and Serena Williams in the USA, Tamaki thought her daughters could become top professional tennis players. The family relocated and Tamaki mentions that they had no money at times but tennis would never stop. “I had no money, worked nonstop, and cried all the time,” she writes.
‘There must be many people who feel uncomfortable watching Black people and Asians practicing tennis’: Naomi Osaka’s mother
She mentions that her family had to face a lot of heat from the police in the USA as other players would sometimes call the police, saying that “unlicensed coaches are teaching.” Tamaki says that tennis is still considered a sport for white people in the country and there are still many people who raise eyebrows watching Black people and Asians practicing tennis.
“Tennis is still a sport for the white community. There must be many people who feel uncomfortable watching Black people and Asians practicing tennis hard,” she said. Such incidents may be the trigger point for Naomi’s involvement in social affairs like ‘Black Lives Matters’.
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Lakshya Chopra
(2595 Articles Published)