The draw for the Australian Open was not benevolent for the best Latin American tennis player, the Colombian Camila Osorio, which occupies the 53rd place in the world ranking of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA, for its acronym in English). In the first match she will have to face the Japanese Naomi Osaka, number 14 in the world ranking and current defending champion of the tournament.
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The sporting dimension of Osaka is reflected in a single fact: last year she became the highest paid athlete of all time in the world.
The prestigious Forbes magazine stated that the 24-year-old tennis player earned 60 million dollars (55 of them from sponsorships), thus establishing a new record for an athlete. She, the first woman on the list published by the magazine, is number 12 in the general relationship between the highest paid athletes.
Osaka is a dangerous and fearsome rival: she has been the champion of four grand slams (two US Opens in 2018 and 2020, and two Australian Opens in 2019 and 2021) and has held the first position of the WTA ranking for 25 years. weeks (four in a row).
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A difficult 2021
However, 2021 was a difficult year for Osaka after her triumph in Australia, where she now returns barely playing again after four months without stepping on a court. She needed a break and to occupy her thoughts on other matters, after having been eliminated from the Olympics and having declared that the anxiety and pressure of the results of professionalism and fame were affecting her mental health.
“Everything went wrong. I have felt at times that I had the whole weight of the world on my back. It has been too much for me. This defeat has hurt me more than any”, said the Japanese tennis player, crying after her unexpected elimination in the round of 16 of the Olympic Games.
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Days before, Osaka had lit the cauldron of the Olympic flame, a distinction only for the most privileged of the sport:
“Without a doubt, it is the greatest athletic achievement and honor that I will have in my life,” Naomi wrote on her Instagram.
Osaka, born to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, has often not fit into the traditional culture of Japanese society due to her own origins, her behavior and her political views. Also, he barely speaks Japanese.
As if that were not enough, he has always had panic, anxiety and nerves to attend to the press. The press conferences for her became something distressing and overwhelming, for which she decided not to attend the mandatory conferences in tournaments many times and for which she even received fines, such as at Roland Garros.
She cried and broke down several times in front of communicators and cameras. Since the beginning of this year, Osaka has been trying to regain her joy for tennis and her level of play.
Joy
Last week he said: “I only have one major goal this year and it has nothing to do with results or anything like that. I just want to feel like I’m having fun every time I walk on the court. If I lose later, I want to at least make sure I tried my hardest.”
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And he added: “I also have a goal in the press conferences: never cry again, I hope it works. I worry too much about the results, the ranking… I need to find a way to enjoy the game: it’s the reason for all this”.
Osaka withdrew last weekend from the semifinal against Veronika Kudermetova due to abdominal pain. He preferred to “take care of himself” to play the grand slam in top form.
On the court, the Japanese stands out for her aggressive baseline game, her power and strength on her forehand (she can reach 160 km/h) and her serve (she has hit 200 km/h), but more than her shots winning shots, his physical strength is in winning long points.
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