{"id":901407,"date":"2026-10-31T20:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901407\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T20:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T20:08:26","slug":"she-always-put-others-first-and-encouraged-me-how-naomi-osakas-mom-backed-her-tennis-dreams-by-working-long-hours-while-her-father-taught-both-sisters-the-game-internatio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/901407\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cShe always put others first and encouraged me\u201d: How Naomi Osaka\u2019s mom backed her tennis dreams by working long hours while her father taught both sisters the game | International Sports News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u201cSheNaomi Osaka\u2019s mom backed her tennis dreams by working long hours while her father taught both sisters the game(Getty Images) Naomi Osaka\u2019s rise to the top of tennis came with years of work behind it. Her parents, Tamaki Osaka and Leonard Fran\u00e7ois, played very different roles in that journey. While her mother worked hard to support the family and pay for her daughters\u2019 tennis ambitions, her father took charge of their early training despite having little experience with the sport.Their efforts helped Naomi and her older sister, Mari, get the chance to pursue tennis from a young age. And Naomi has never hidden how much she owes them.<\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka\u2019s mother Tamaki worked long hours to support her daughters\u2019 tennis dreams<\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka has often spoken about her mother\u2019s sacrifices. In a statement shared with People in May 2021, the four-time Grand Slam champion recalled watching Tamaki work hard to support her passion for tennis.\u201cGrowing up, I saw my mother work incredibly hard to support me and my passion for play,\u201d Naomi Osaka said. She also added, \u201cShe always put others first and encouraged me to embrace my diversity.\u201dTamaki\u2019s work went beyond simply cheering from the sidelines. She helped support the family financially while Naomi and Mari trained and competed. The costs of developing two young tennis players included equipment, court access and travel. Tamaki took on long working hours to help meet those demands. Naomi later spoke about seeing her mother push through exhaustion, an image that stayed with her as she grew older.There was also a personal side to Tamaki\u2019s support. Naomi grew up in a Japanese-Haitian household, with her mother helping her stay connected to her Japanese roots. The family eventually chose to have Naomi represent Japan, even though she grew up in the United States.For Naomi, her mother\u2019s influence was not limited to tennis. Tamaki encouraged her to accept her background and feel comfortable with her identity. That support became part of the foundation behind the player fans know today.<\/p>\n

Leonard Fran\u00e7ois followed Richard Williams\u2019 example to coach Naomi and Mari Osaka<\/p>\n

While Tamaki helped make the tennis journey possible, Leonard Fran\u00e7ois took responsibility for teaching his daughters the game. His decision came after watching Venus and Serena Williams compete at the 1999 French Open.Leonard saw similarities between the Williams sisters and his own daughters. He also studied how their father, Richard Williams, had guided their careers. Although Leonard had little tennis experience, he began learning the sport through instructional books and videos before coaching Naomi and Mari.\u201cThe blueprint was already there. I just had to follow it,\u201d Leonard told in 2018.The family moved from Japan to Long Island in 2000, when Naomi was three. Leonard then put both girls through demanding practice sessions, with thousands of balls hit as they worked on their game. He later helped move the family to Florida to give them better training opportunities.His role did not end when Naomi became a professional. In October 2019, after her father coached her during tournaments in Osaka and Beijing, Naomi spoke about their relationship in a post-match press conference. She joked that he annoyed her enough to make her angry, which she then used as motivation to win.But she also made her affection clear in a post on X on October 10, 2019. Naomi wrote that she loved her father and felt grateful for everything she learned from him, both on and off the court.Tamaki\u2019s hard work helped provide the opportunity. Leonard\u2019s decision to teach himself tennis gave Naomi and Mari their first lessons. Their approaches were different, but both parents helped build the path that Naomi would eventually take to the top of the sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka\u2019s mom backed her tennis dreams by working long hours while her father taught both sisters the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[56343,377501,321293,18323,99,377500,428,225941],"class_list":["post-901407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-grand-slam-champion","tag-japanese-haitian-identity","tag-leonard-francois","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-sports","tag-tamaki-osaka","tag-tennis","tag-williams-sisters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}