Naomi Osaka has a lot on her plate.
Not only is the 22-year-old Japanese superstar in hot pursuit of her second US Open title, she’s also using her considerable platform and exposure—according to Forbes, she banked $37.4 million last year, making her the highest-paid female athlete ever—to simultaneously play the role of activist, bringing awareness to racial inequalities not only in the United States, but across the globe.
But Wim Fissette, who took over as Osaka’s coach prior to the pandemic, says he can think of no better athlete to pull it all off. Even when Osaka refused to take the court for her Western & Southern Open semifinal, Fissette and his team were on board.
“It’s definitely helping her and giving her even more energy,” said Fissette of his charge’s Black Lives Matter efforts, which include calling attention to victims of police brutality by wearing a different name-adorned mask each time she takes the court at the 2020 US Open. “She always has the motivation. Of course, she wants to go really far in this Grand Slam, and she wants to win it. But this is like an extra motivation. It's a very important topic for her. She did an unbelievably big thing during the Cincinnati tournament. We supported her there, because we know how important it is.”
“It’s very important to have big personalities like Naomi to make a change, hopefully, one day,” Fissette continued. “I think it’s a great thing that she does. For sure, with wearing the masks, she wants to be a role model, but she also knows that it has to go together with the role model on court. It’s a good combination. Role model off court, great attitude on court. So far, it’s working really well. I’m very proud of her.”
For her part, Osaka—whose maiden Slam title came at the 2018 US Open when she held off Serena Williams in an emotionally-charged final—said, “Whenever I step on the court, I don’t think about anything but the match. Any off-court things, of course, it’s a great motivation for me to want to do well in this tournament.”
Fissette’s coaching resume is sprinkled with big names. He helped guide Kim Clijsters to back-to-back US Open titles in 2009 and 2010. The Belgian, 40, has worked with Victoria Azarenka, Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, Petra Kvitova, and Johanna Konta as well. He says Osaka is unique in that she possesses an easy power and pre-match calmness, unlike any he has ever seen. It’s a combination that, he says, makes her a consistent second-week threat on the sport’s very biggest stages.
“Her physical strength, I see more and more, is a huge advantage,” he explained. “She’s such a strong and explosive athlete. Serena is similar in that way. But it’s a different physical level than all the other players. To see the easy power she can create, that’s a different level. You have some girls who hit really hard—like a [Dayana] Yastremska, a [Camila] Giorgi—but if you see Naomi on the other side, she’s handling that pace so easily because she has so much strength. That’s a huge advantage.”
“This is a girl who’s very aware of her strengths, but also her weaknesses,” Fissette added. “She’s very confident in herself. The way she approaches matches, it’s very focused. On the other hand, she’s also very relaxed. That’s a very special combination. That’s the way she approaches matches. She doesn’t really get nervous. She knows what to expect from the opponent and knows what to do.”
She also knows what to do to make a statement. We’ve seen four masks thus far—bearing the names Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin—which means Osaka is through to the quarterfinals in Flushing Meadows. She hopes to show us three more, leading to the third major title of her nascent career.
The way Fissette sees it, if anyone’s got the power, the focus to pull it off, it’s Naomi Osaka.
