“This means so much to me!” An emotional Naomi Osaka shares a heartfelt video of Uma and her father thanking her for all the help
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Naomi Osaka and the young girl Uma with her father
Naomi Osaka, the former world number one from Japan, lost to Zhang Shuai in straight sets in the first round at the Cincinnati Open. This defeat was her third loss on her comeback after skipping out the Wimbledon 2022 due to an Achilles injury. She had her return at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic event but lost in the Round of 16 to Coco Gauff. She had a significant setback at the Canadian Open when she had to hand over a walkover to Kaia Kanepi due to a back injury that resisted her from playing freely even after medical assistance.
She had been upfront about battling mental health issues during the French Open in 2021 when she refused to press conferences and even opted out from the tournament citing the same. Her remarkable performance of this year had been at the Miami Open where she managed to reach the finals but lost to Iga Swiatek in straight sets. The Japanese player has been struggling to keep pace with her performances and is still in search of a great comeback since her last title win at the Australian Open in 2021.
“I always wanted to help young talented kids” Naomi Osaka on being an example for younger players
The four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka’s partnership with Play Academy aims at empowering girls through play and sport. It provides grants and well-built training for young budding players so that they get help with the resources. Osaka shared a video on her social media account where a young girl named Uma‘s father thanked the Japanese player for all the help and opportunities which can shape Uma’s career. In the video, the young girl hopes to beat Osaka and desires to meet her in person soon.
Osaka was ecstatic and could not refrain from expressing her feelings that she could do something of this sort for the young girl who aspires to be a tennis star like her. She, in gratitude, expressed her thoughts that she will try to help more and more young upcoming talents in the future, especially thanking the Play Academy for the grants.
Two-time US Open champion Osaka will be playing in the mixed doubles category at the US Open in 2022 and it will be interesting to see who she pairs up with as she was looking to play in the doubles category at Wimbledon but withdrew due to an injury. She will be looking forward to winning a third US Open title and her 5th singles Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows.
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Prateek Pradhan
(601 Articles Published)