‘Bring Change to Girls’ Lives’ – Naomi Osaka Launches Noble Initiative to Create Next-Gen Sporting Talents

Four-time Grand Slam champion, Naomi Osaka is one of the most popular players on the tour. After winning her first Grand Slam title in 2018, she gained immense popularity across the world. She has also been a great ambassador for the sport. In 2020, she launched an initiative called Play Academy with Naomi Osaka in her homeland, Japan, to empower women through sport. Recently, she visited the Lost Angeles branch to spend some quality time with young girls. 

Naomi Osaka spends some valuable time with young girls 

In a recent Instagram post, Naomi Osaka shared some beautiful pictures with young girls in her Play Academy with Naomi Osaka in Los Angeles. Another American tennis star, Frances Tiafoe, also joined her during her visit. 

On her Instagram post, Osaka wrote, “Had such a great time with @playacademynaomi grantees yesterday! Thank you to @laureussport for working with me to help bring change to girls’ lives through play and sport. Also a big thank you to @godaddy for supporting this initiative and helping to launch the new @playacademynaomi website. Visit my IG Story to check it out!”

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Notably, Noami first launched this initiative in her home country, Japan. Gradually, she’s expanding its branches in Los Angeles and Haiti as well. One of the most popular sports brands Nike and Laures Sport, partnered with Naomi Osaka for this great initiative to help the next generation of girls prosper.

Osaka is getting ready for the clay-court season

Following an indifferent start to the 2022 season, Naomi Osaka had something to cheer about as she reached the final at the Miami Masters fortnight ago.

Despite her straight-sets, comprehensive loss against Iga Swiatek in the final in Miami, she can draw tremendous confidence from her run in the sunshine state as she heads to the European clay-court swing. Following her memorable run in Miami, the 24-year-old gained 42 spots on the WTA rankings. She is currently ranked 35th in the world and hopes of breaking into the Top 10 once again soon.

Tennis -WTA Premier 5 – Italian Open – Foro Italico, Rome, Italy – May 12, 2021 Japan’s Naomi Osaka in action during her second road match against Jessica Pegula of U.S. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

Meanwhile, Osaka spoke about her preparations for the clay-court swing after the Miami Open final. She even talked about watching Rafael Nadal, as she prepares to embrace the challenge of playing on red dirt, her least favorite surface. She hasn’t won a single title on clay so far in her career. However, this year could be a great opportunity for her to change people’s perception of her being just a hard-court player. 

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Can Osaka dig deep at Roland Garros this year? Let us know in the comments.

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