When Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open earlier this year, the decision shocked her peers, fans and the tournament organisers. It came in a week where she announced she wouldn’t be doing the mandatory press conferences. The battle between the player and authorities became bitter with the threat of bigger fines ” having already been fined $15,000 once – and expulsion. So, she left.
“I never wanted to be a distraction,” she explained her position in a social media post. “The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” she went on to add.
A three-part docuseries ‘Naomi Osaka‘, released on Netflix on Friday, takes the viewer through the journey of winning her maiden Grand Slam in New York in 2018 and her challenges thereafter. Directed by Garrett Bradley, it is the story of a soft-spoken athlete showing courage, finding her voice, and using it, while figuring out her place in the tennis world. It is about loneliness that is the life of a tennis player, and a continuous attempt at self-discovery for the 23-year-old.
To Bradley’s credit, she has done an exceptional job of weaving the series together of a shy, anxious and introverted athlete. An athlete whose baptism to the big stage came under controversial circumstances. A socially anxious person, by her own admission, was thrusted into the limelight with the 2018 US Open title by beating her idol Serena Williams in the final.
The win, when Osaka was 20, took her to an incredible level of fame. People yarned for her presence and told her they loved her, they cried for her; journalists wanted to speak to her; she was invited to talk shows and became a fashion icon.
The first episode, titled “Rise”, tackles the reality of Osaka’s celebrity status, her journey of moving to California, away from her family, a childhood of low expectations projected on her because of her racial identity (half Japanese, half Haitian). The episode, like all three, finishes with a lingering thought or question. “No one really knows all the sacrifices that you make, just to be good,” Osaka says.
The second and third episodes, “Champion Mentality” and “New Blueprint”, build further on Naomi Osaka the person while keeping her tennis career at the centre of it. It looks at how the still young player deals with the pressure of being a defending champion and losing to Belinda Bencic in the fourth round of the 2019 US Open in the process. “She forgot who she was,” says her new coach, Wim Fissette, while trying to end her poor run of form in 2019.
The pressure is not just from herself. It is also the pressure of letting her team down that affects her as she says she’s “a vessel” for their hard work. One of the most heartbreaking moments is when she – already a World No 1, first Japanese singles player to win a Grand Slam, record-holder for earnings in a year – asks her mother on her 22nd birthday, “Did you think, by the time I was 22¦ (that) I would’ve done more?”
The episode also looks at her emotional reaction to Kobe Bryant’s passing and how it carried on to the Fed Cup defeat against Spain. With access to home videos, there’s also a moment where one gets a peek into Osaka the person where she removes her Australian Open trophy to make space for a painting gifted by sister Mari.
The episode finishes with a question: “For so long, I’ve tied winning to my worth as a person. So, like, what am I if not a good tennis player?”
But this is not a sappy docuseries. The third episode focuses on her transformation from a self-contemplative individual to one that is willing to take action. One that wants to make a change and not just sit on the sidelines. One that is confident in her skin for things outside the confines of a tennis court.
She talks about her decision to play for Japan at the Olympics even though she had moved to the United States when 3 years old. Her concern at potential controversy for being outspoken in the aftermath of George Floyd being killed and Black Lives Matter protests in Minnesota. Her decision to not play a match leading to play being cancelled – a rarity in the sport. On wearing seven different masks with names of seven different Black individuals being killed in police brutality.
There’s footage of her visit to her foundation in Haiti, father’s home country, with the family. She learns about the country’s colonial history. And it ends with a question: “When I was younger, 17 or something, I wanted the high school experience, going to college. I think people my age are in college now. I can get that experience through movies. Honestly, (I’m) too far down this path to wonder what could have been?”
It ends abruptly leaving you wanting more. To try and get her views on the events that unfolded in Paris. But, maybe, that abrupt ending is appropriate considering we’re talking about an athlete still navigating her path ” on and off the court.
This is not a typical sports documentary. Maybe because this is not your typical athlete. Naomi Osaka is an athlete whose life doesn’t start and end on the tennis court and the last three years have proven that aplenty. The docuseries in itself is beautifully done, has perfect footages, and at no point does it slow down. It is a good viewing even for those not fully versed with the intricacies of the sport. It is NOT a good viewing for those who are looking for action-packed shots.
After three episodes, you’re left wondering: Who is Naomi Osaka in 2021? Maybe she herself articulates it best. She used to call herself a counter-puncher, someone “who can take the blows and wait for an opportunity to finish it”. But now she’s an aggressive baseliner – which means she’s in control, deciding how the game is played.
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