By Morgan Clark
It was in 2018 when she made a big upset, beating one the greatest athletes of all the time at the age of 20. Winning the Grand Slam as the first Japanese tennis player for both men and women. Naomi Osaka, a Haitian -Japanese tennis player, has made quite a stir in the tennis community. Many did not expect her to beat Serena Williams in the first place, but absolutely no one expected the controversy that would follow Osaka’s win. During the match Serena was penalized three times, and some believe that the referee robbed her of a win. But those who watched the game know that Naomi earned that win.
Two years later the 22-year old tennis player is in the headlines again, causing another upset. But this time it’s in her activism. Because of COVID, Naomi had time to herself for the first time since her career took off. She decided to fly down to Michigan to partake in the Black Lives matter protests. Along with her boyfriend, Osaka protested police brutality disproportionately effecting people of color. Since then, Naomi has taken her activism to the US Open. During each game she wore a different mask that stated a name of an African-American who has been killed by the police. Their names were: Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, 
Philando Castile and Tamir Rice. Seven masks for seven games. Not only did she bring awareness to others about the racial injustice that is going on in America, she won the US Open. And although what she has done is truly brave, there are those who believe she should have kept the “politics out of sports”. In response to that Osaka tweeted “All the people that were telling me to “keep politics out of sports”, (which it wasn’t political at all), really insured me to win. You better believe I’m gonna try to be on your tv for as long as possible.” (Twitter 2020). As a young athlete it was not expected for her to win the US Open. Not only did she win the US Open twice she did this while spreading awareness on a mainly white platform. Fearless is what Naomi is, on and off the court. We can’t wait to see what the future will hold for her.