Naomi Osaka Wants To be OK With Just Being “Ok”.
Has Stardom “Warped” Naomi Osaka?
It’s apparent, In The World Of Sports, fashion, Business, Or Any Sucess, The Higher You Climbs And Extend Beyond What Is expected, The Greater The altitude, The More Attention Is Called To Balance And To Groundedness. A Necessary Toll Of Our Concentration There is, To Stand Amidst The Waves Ad Winds around us But Not To Be Pulled By Their Whim. In The Dichotomic World Of Tennis And The Physical-Mental Demand Charges two Fold On The Stars On Court And The Concentration. In Tennis, The solo Act In sports , The Waves Can Rise Above the Stars Then Breaks Them. In The Wall of The New Normal, And New Challenges Awash The Currents That Are Pulling Tennis Mega Star Naomi Osaka Away Form The Game.
If You’ve Taken In A Glimpse Of Tennis Star Naomi Osaka, Recently it Has Not Been on The Tennis Court. The former Grand Slam Champion Has Bulked And Bailed At Her Most Recent Majors Appearances. After being eliminated from the USA Open, The former World’s Number player Underscored Her Previous retort from Her Absense from The Game Only A Few Months Earlier. That Of course her Desire To Recede From The Court, “Im Going To Take A Break from Playing,” Osaka Divulge At A. Press Conference. Which Was An Step Up From Major Tournaments Before, When Osaka Made The Powerful Decision To skip Post Game Intervirews entirely. Now She Could Face The Monotony The Media If Only To Say “See You Later”.
The Desire To Break From The Spotlight Isn’t So much Uncommon As It Is Confusing. If You are A Superstar In Front of The Camera is Your “Desire”. But Osaka, A Quoted “Introvert.” Broke from Game To Face a New Microscope.
Osaka Was defeated In The Third round of The U.S. Open. The very Tournament That Only Three Years earlier Launch Her career Into Stardom After Defeating Her Icon Serena Williams 2018. With Williams, Osaka’s Assumed rival And The Only Challenge To Her takeover Of The Sport, On Injury Leave, The Tournament Has Still Not been So Kind to Osaka. She Lost To Coco Gauff A Year Later In Defense of That Crown And Again To Another Younger rival This Year. She’s Won Four Grand Slams But Its Defeat, Or The Aftermath Of The Body Blows She endures During Those Defeats That Seem To be The Most Intriguing In This New time in Her Career.
Tennis Is The Individual Athletics Purest Performance, The Alpha Litmus Test For Individual Athletic Ability; Movement, Power, agility, Acuity. Any Renown Garnered Or Claim to Fame in Tennis, Whether a Major Final or in Some Cases, Just Qualification For Tournament Could Very well Bes The Highest Achievement Of An Athlete Can Claim To. In Another World, the Grandest Of Tennis Players Is The Heralded As The Chiefdom To their Country’s Purported Self-esteem. A Massive Triumph For Both Man And Nation But The Cost Are not Twofold. Not Finacial Cost That Often Wary The Some of tennis’ Hopeful, no There Is Shared Burden That taxes Twice On The Individual; Once For The Physique Another For The Psyche.
With Every sweep Of The Wrist, Rotation Of The Shoulder, The racquets Rages, the Score Board oscillates entwined to The Tennis Ball Blitzing Across the Net, Rocking Back In Forth As The Match Point Volleys In Subjection Between to foes. Their Body-Mind in Connectivity, jolted, enduring the Drag the Frictions the demands.
To the unsuspecting Eye, Tennis, A Non-contact Sport in the Traditional Sense, Doesn’t Appear Nearly As Taxing Physical As Say A Soccer Or Even basketball, Not to Mention Football But the Drawback In Individuals is the There Aren’t any teammates To spell A Downtime, And Games Can Grind on And On Into Hour Long Marathons.
The Acrylic Composite Lathered Over Six Layers Of Courts Cracks under The Weight Pressed On By The Force These Athletes Produce When They put Such Obligation On Themselves To Perform At Their Highest capacity Continuously; The Grunts, the Calls for reseparation Of Effort Spent, Is Wrung, The Bell Tolls, to whom? The Turf is Left to repair, The World’s Eyes Are Left To Shift Towards Another Lifting Beckon, And Then What Is Left Of Them, For Them, The Athlete?
It’s Not the Physical Aspect Of The Game That Appears Dislodged With Osaka. Sure Athletes Have Had Their Promising Tennis Career succumb To Injury, Serena’s Absence In Recent Month And Another Tennis Starlet to Be Discuss. But for Osaka Its not “Physical.” Her Motions Are As Poised, Technical And “robotic,” Scripted, Ingrained As they Have Ever Been. Her Powerful Serve Is Just Thunderous As Ever. The Trouble Begins to wear Her Mentor The Late Kobe Bryant Proposed, even Porgniscted It Would Be, In The Mind.
“You Have To Stay focus On what Got You These opportunities,” Bryant said. It’s the craft, and The Mental Hurdle Its Presented That Appears to be Hindering Osaka.
In This Latest era Of the Art, A tennis Titans, Osaka Above All the Inheritor Of The Brand And The Burden, She Only 23 years, the Japanese Athelethic Ambassador Or sort, Migrated to the To America, To New York And Under The Guise Of Her Father, She Quietly Developed Her Game.
“Growing Up we Stuck To Ourselves.” Now She Battling To Be Herself, so It Seems.
Too Famed For Tag Lines, Her Coy Presence has Not graced aspect Of Of Of Sport And Business. She’s A Grand Slam winner, The First Japanese Born. The highest-paid femaAthleteete of all time. A Burgeoning fashion icon, And Possibly Most Important A Self Proclaim “advocate for change.”. Yes, Naomi Osaka is all those things, But Who Is She. Ultimately embattled By Her Brand Now, After Faltering Out of Her Last Two Major Tournament and Waving Participation Of The Previous, Osaka, Whose Held On To The Number One Ranking With unflinching Dedication, Is Dropping. From 1 To Number 2 And Now 8th in the Process.
Before Osaka, There Was Serena. Assertive And Brash, Serena Had A Command Over The Spotlight And Her Opponents. Williams Rarely Surrender Major Open Gold. That was Before Osaka, And Most Notably Before Her Was, Maria Sharapova, resilient And reserve. Tall But Had The Kittenish grace Of A Figure Skater, Gliding Along with The Court. Sharapova Won her tournaments on mental strength as much as an astonishing long-armed reach. Naomi Osaka is Shy, And There is Where Tennis’ Stardom Has taken its toll On Her.
In The World Of female Athletics that Struggled to Create Star, Tennis Hold Almost Sole Ownership Of The Most bankable Stars in Women Athletics. The Highest Earning Female Athletes of This Generation were All tennis Players Consisting of Those Three Players Above. “For female athletes, out to get rich from their dominanTennisnnis is the go-to sport. Nine of the world’s ten highest-paid female athletes make their living with a racket….”
In An era Of femaAthleteete fighting For “recognition” And “Equality,” athletes in soccer, basketball and hockey have tackled in recent years. These Issues exists Not In the worldTennisnnis—equality In Payout in femTennisnnis. Osaka’s Near $40 million pay Out, And Williams’s $4 million Less Dwarfs All Others Who narrow thread Above $10 million.
Endorsements evaluate about 90% Of Their Earning; With Nike and Nissan Being Two Primaries for Osaka And With blessing Breathes A new Pressure. “You Have To prove Yourself Over and Over. Again, And Again.” The Endorsement Potion Is The” Yardstick” In A Sense for Female Athletes Range. With Every Grand Slam, Total Osaka Amasses A New For Profit.
Since Winning Her First Grand Slam, Osaka’s Profile And “Star Power” Has Ballooned. Her Instagram following Marched Up from 500K To Nearly 5 million. Sh’s become A owner, A CEO, And Perhaps even A Sex Symbol.
This Toll May Have Well Been The Reasoning That Took Russian Tennis Star Sharapova’s reflection Supposed to Her To Reckon With When the Triumphant Realizes The Ground No longer Contracted To her Will. In 2004, Sharapova, A Callow teenager Starlet Emerge On the Tennis Scene And Clamped Her Grips Onto The First Major Tournament win of Her Career At Wimbledon, Defeating Former Tennis Teeny Superstar Serena Williams. Maria’s Star, Her Force, It Warp From “Relative Unknown” And Into “Virtually Star” in Speeds That Make The Theory Of relativity An unsound Property of Science.
A Capacious Career Soon Developed Transporting The Innocent Russian Immigrant Into the Most Bankable Woman In Sports Business. Sharapova And Her A Father Migrated From Nuclear Devasted Serbia, Eastern Europe, To America. Sharapova developed a taste for Tennis, Too Young to Qualify For Academy. Her Burgeoning Talents Would Be To great A Force To ignore, At 7 Enrolling In Tennis Academy In Florida. From Inception To Match Point, Sharapova would Spend Some 28 Years In The Field Play.
“How do you leave behind the only life you’ve ever known? How do you walk away from the courts?”
Sharapova Could’t, Sharapova Did’’t. After 28 years of countless Hours, Millions Earned, And Priceless Effort Invested, This was not “Saying Goodbye” This Was Surrender. The Courts Step Away from Her. Throughout Storied Career The fields At Play, The One She entered Into To welcome Adoring Crowd Had evolved. The Courts of Concrete And faded Lines That She Despised In Youth, Level Over And Leveled Up into Muddy Clay. From There, Sharapova eventually Meet The Prestige Of Manicured Grass, Which Favors Her Style Of Play, “her game is all grunts and groundstrokes.” The grass is where Sharapova Would win Her first Grand Slam, And Then Others After.
But Even Though The Court Evolved, The stakes And The Rewards What Remained unchanged, unaltered. Was the toll—the Damage.
Images Of A Callow 17-year-old Maria Sharapova winning Her First Major In 2004, Then The French Open A Year Later no. 1 for a total of 21 weeks Tall 6’2 Hoisting The Championship, Juxtapose To A Solemn 32-year-old Sitting On Couch Reading Essay She Wrote Has An explanation, A Reason, A Goodbye. In 2004 The Young In Aspiring Star Held Her Glowing Features, Her Sloane coquettish Smile her Sinewy body, Not Yet Developed but Strong. At 32 Her Beauty, Still Dazzling, But “tested” Expectedly worn And tethered form The Battles And ensuing Exhaustion, On The Court And The battles Off. In Between triumph, Sharapova Ran Through The rickets Of Multiple Surgery, those Mostly Shoulder related, that would Come To claim her Career And Her Fight To return To The Court To Return To It. Her Reward in those Ailing efforts, Those 21 weeks have already been eclipsed by both Ashleigh Barty And Naomi Osaka.
Since retiring A Year, A Go Sharapova Has Been In Locked Into Battles With Her New Venture. As Business Advisor, It’s the Next “Mountain” For Her To Approach. But The Former Tennis Prodigy Hasn’t Stray Away From The World that once enraptured Her. Recently For Just A Brief Moment, She Paused To Lend Her Voice To Another Tennis Starlet Naomi Osaka, fighting The very Battle That Emerges In Stardom, when Field Of Play Breaks Serve And Volley’s Back.
“Naomi Osaka is an incredible athlete and a beautiful human being who has a very long career ahead of her. We all need to respect the decisions that players make at times of vulnerability when they’re feeling down or not playing their bTennisnnis.”
Sharapova expostulated When Asked To Address the recent Events Of the U.S. Open.
When Sharapova Descended The Ranks As The Most Bankable Women’s Athlete Of Her Generation, There was Cross Point, An Intersection. Her dismount Coincided With The Ascension Of Naomi Osaka.
“The nature of tennis is that its popularity is cyclical; as the sport’s ambassadors get older, its governing bodies are constantly looking for new players to follow and surpass them.”
The Osaka- Sharapova Relationship in this Is A Reflection of Parallel Images, Interconnected By Accolades, Tethered Across time. Separated By ten years In Age, Both Stars Took To Tennis Very young; as Is The Case. Both Were Born Outside Of the U.S. but Migrated In Youth And Hone Their Skill in The Land Where They Would face Their most fierce Competitors. It Was Here In the Us Both Climb then Chains Of Acclaim And Defeating the Most Dominant Force In FemTennisnnis This Era, Serena Williams; incredibly Impactful considering No One Expected Williams To Be Defeated By Either. Osaka Garnered “Boos” and Reproach, Sharapova Propelled in Status. So to Osaka Champion Will Her Way into Tennis Pedigree.
The Japanese Star Vaulted to The Top As The World’s Highest-Paid Athlete.
“Champions should deliver not just trophies, but a celebrity, which meant that a star needed to be a couple of things. Sufficiently bankable, in both appeal and performance, to anchor night sessions at the Open and satisfy advertisers. Sufficiently relatable to inspire children to choTennisnnis over other sports. Sufficiently appealing and trendy for legions of shoppers to purchase his look. This was the machine that previous generations had constructed, and the machine wanted more.”
Distant relative Sharapova and Osaka In The Field Of Play
If Osaka Leap To The Top Was Gassed On By The “Boos,” She was A Young Champion rejected by her crowd. But The Steam And Flames Of her Acclaim Have Been The Accolades And titles She’s Earned On The Streamline Up. Celebrated, Osaka has Bestowed The Privilege Of Lighting The cauldron At The Opening of The Olympic ceremony in Her Home Country Japan A Moment That Should have been Celebrated With Boisterous Celebration If It Were Not For The Overshadowing Malignant Of The Games Themselves. She’s One of The Faces Of The Social Justice Movements So Many Athlete Have Invested Themselves Into. Osaka Became The World Number 1 Tennis Player in 2019; She Was 21.
Osaka Migrated From Japan To Long Island, New York, With Her Father, Mother, And older sister Mari. Osaka Begin playing Tennis On Open courts In Queens, Some Of which Were So Crowded She Could Not Gain Access. Now She’s invited On Occasion To Help Renovate And Design.
The field of Play, Is No Matter of Play. Ahead Of Series Of The Games, the Matchups That Collectively Write Every Tournament’s Play Into Tennis’ Rich History, Some Two Centuries Of The Tale Of The Tape. Before There Is A Sweat Drop, A Wrist Flex Or Knee Collapse. Before The Judges First Declaration And The Decidedly Before the Final Declarative, The Surface Is tested. In a Matter Of Math Not The Movement. Science And Not Score They measure the coefficient of friction of the court and the coefficient of restitution of the ball coming off the court. In Conjunction, the Accompanying Of The Court Is Put To The Test. No Math afterward It’s Test The Champions. At The U.S. Open Before Feet Hit The Floor The, Within The Line That Define “Outs” And “Aces” There is A Unforgiven Battle Crested Within The Sport of Tennis. Few If Any Sports Produce, Propagates, Progenies and The Deliver Teen sensation Into The Arms Outstretch Arms Of Stardom And No Sport Mercilessly exhaust Or Exenterate.
Maybe Gymnastics but Those Star Seasonal and Vanish Into the Dune
It’s A Shuttering scene. A Teenager Coming To Age On One Of The Biggest Stages Her Sport Could Offer
In May, Osaka Abruptly withdrew from the French Open. Abruptly, In The Sense That No One Expected It. She Was The World Number 1 and Odds On Favorite To win. The reason for Said Absence Only Magnified What was believed To Be Osaka Deserting Her responsibility As Champion Of Her Sport. The world’s Number 1 Was Burden By The weight Of The Media, And Over A Series Of Days Quote Possibly The Most Scrutinized Period of Her Life Took Form In Backlash, Praise And Sometimes Sympathy And Concern. Ultimately, The Star Was Fined, And Later Osaka Called For A Break From Action. Osaka Expectedly skips Wimbledon. She Decided To Invest Her Focus Into Representing Her Country, Japan In The Olympics. When That Faithful day I July Arrive, Osaka represented The Last leg Of the Olympic Traditional relay. She lit the Olympic cauldron in her home country of Japan but fell early in the play.
“Naomi Osaka’s decision reminds us all how important it is to prioritize personal health and well-being.”
When she returned to play, she cried during her news conference. The isolation of COVID, she said, was starting to wear on her. It’s the Enigma Of Osaka. The Mystery Build On the Intrigue
No One Prepares You for fame. No One Prepares You For the Crowd. For The Autographs For The Emotion. For The Impact That You Create Every Step Of The Way. It’s Something You either Grow Into, Or You Let Overshadow You. And When I Say “You,” This Is By No Means An Appeal To Your Sense Of Empathy. The experience of being known, paid attention to, commented on by strangers is not in any sense universal. It’s foreign to most people. So When Osaka says, “I Need A break,” Expect the World to Issue A Reply, Something Like “From What?”. Because Though stars Never Ask, It’s the Comments And attention Of The Crowd that, In effect, Creates You. Because We appear For You And Therefore You Owe Us Your Performance. “What Is A Star For Not the Darkness surrounding It.”
Osaka Faltered To glorify her country On The Tennis Court At The Olympics, But Her Ever Diversified Array Of Skills allowed Her To Put Japanese Heritage On Display At The Met Gala. The New York Fashion show Delayed from Spring allowed Osaka To rebound From The U.S. Open And channel Her Focus Into Her Growing Appeal As A “fashionista.” Osaka, An Ambassador for Louis Vuitton, was Draped in “The custom corseted dress in a colorful, graphic jacquard.” Breathtaking Palette Of Colors flooded the seen As Osaka March Across The carpet And Into Time—“topped with a silk-mix cape featuring 22 ruffles, 18 meters of leather satin, and a 50-meter silk hem—was impressive on its own, but the underlying message of the print that covers the bustier and skirt was what hit closest to home for Osaka.”
Osaka Has Been On The “Glam” Seen for Some Time Now; it Comes With The Territory of Being One Of The Most renowned And endorsed Athletes In History. She Has Her Own Barbie, Ironic Being That At The Met Gala Osaka resembled Cynthia The Doll From The late Nineties Nickelodeon Show Rug rats.
The Writer of the Vogue Article I so Polite “Borrowed” the Description of Osaka Met Gala, Discusses Osaka In A Way I have never read. She’s A “young athlete” yes that knows how to balance a show-stopping fashion with a personal or political statement.” Her Grand Slam Victories That tedious to Discuss Don’t factor Into This conversation.
Osaka has become The “vessel,” As She Said of Herself in the Netflix Limited Series On Her rise To fame. Then She Spoke of Her Sister, who Design the Piece Osaka wore Mari’s Fashion Ambition. But The vessldhip Reaches beyond that. She Has become The vessel for So Many Causes; mental health, fashion, Social Justice. It Lends one To perceive that the Kobe Prophesy has Played through
In 2008 After The Celtics Defeated the Lakers in the NBA Finals, Bryant Took On The summer challenge To Not Only Return But work tirelessly To Overcome. Already Heralded As the Best in the Game, Kobe Bryant Knew Through experience, There Is No guarantee The Climb Back Would Be Through The Same Trek Where He Lost It. His Only Thought: Refining his Craft After A Loss in the finals That Most Would Have Excused Him for. That Summer, He took To Beijing And Won Gold for The U.S. It’s Unfair to compare Osaka to Kobe Or Anybody To Kobe, For that matter, But the allegory Hold. Kobe’s Response to a let Down was Not A break. It was not time Spent In His Other Ventures, And Though He did Begin His first Lean into retirement By taking directing classes that He Had Not yet counted The days, He Worked it off. Before Kobe’s untimely Passing Osaka Had Been reticent To respond to A Chat The Two Were locked into. Osaka felt the responsibility Of redeeming Herself, As One Destined To carry Kobe’s Legacy Into The Next-generation But failing To Preserve The “Mamba Mentality” After matches.
Being Vulnerable, The “It’s OK Not To Be OK” Is OK. Champions Are defined By How They respond. Osaka Wants To Wants To Flee The Pressure Of The constant Reponse. It’s a Lose-lose in some regard. You Win, And You Have To defend With High Expectations, The expectations That She Meet With And Folded Under As The Defending U.S. Open Champion. Fall And You’re expected To Return To The Mount with A Greater Tenacity And A Unflinching Desire. Osaka Doesn’t want to Jettison One Or another; She wants To escape The “Expectations” success Propagates. She Wants To Be OK with Just being OK.
Osaka Zen Like Appeal To Loses appear to Vanish; It’s Bleed Away, In its Stead the “robotic” Disposition That Once enraptured Her Hold To The Cold Remnants Of Defeat That Could Never Peirce her Cold Despondent exoskeleton. Her stoic Sp Seem to Sit With Her Longer They Lingered. Perhaps This Is The way of Tennis That Not One star Can eclipse the Value Of The Game. With Osaka Sidelined, So To Serena And Venus Williams The Sport Of Tennis Finds Itself In Cruxing Place WithOut Any of Its Endearing And Enduring Superstar To Lead the Way. How Will Tennis Survives Without Its Stars Is A Beautiful If Not Harbinger Question. It’s the True Test of The Sports Popularity. With The Biggest Name Blanked On the Play Sheet, The adoration Of The Tennis World Shifts To The Latest Corpus Of Teenage Talent. Young Upcomers Like 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez, Who defeated Osaka Sent In The U.S. Open, 18-year Brit Emma Raducanu Defeated Fernandez to win Her First US Open And Grand Slam. Yes, At Only 18. Becoming the Only Woman To When after Playing 3 Qualifying Games to register for Tournament. Raducanu Has Already Made The Rounds on Several Network Television. And Her Beauty And Bristishness Could Ultimately See Her A top Tennis Mega earner In Short Time.
Perhaps it is The Internet. Just s In The World Of Digital content Which Demand sIt Patrons To Be Executives of So Many attributes Of The Game; Marketing, copy Writing, Analysis, research when Most can Only Manage At best three. Perhaps Tennis Or This Generation Of Athlete, Or Osaka Has Become More than They Are entitled to, And Therefore Some Aspect Of Their Lives Must Suffer So that Any Other Aspects of It could Thrive.
