Naomi Osaka; the current Women’s Tennis Association No. 1 player’s mother is Tamaki Osaka. Naomi, Tamaki’s daughter, is the first Asian player to hold the top singles ranking, as well as the first Japanese player – man or woman – to do so. She has won four Grand Slam singles titles.
Naomi has quickly become one of the world’s most recognizable tennis stars. But there are two unsung heroes who contributed to her success. Even the 2019 Australian Open champion would not hesitate to give all credit to her parents, Tamaki and Leonard.
Tamaki Osaka grew up in a sparsely populated Japanese prefecture
Page Contents
- 1 Tamaki Osaka grew up in a sparsely populated Japanese prefecture
- 2 Tamaki met her husband, Leonard Francois, while she was a student
- 3 Tamaki Osaka and Leonard Francois’s Marriage
- 4 Osaka’s two daughters.
- 5 Tamaki’s husband began training their daughters from childhood
- 6 Is Tamaki Osaka still refusing to communicate with her parents?
- 7 Why Didn’t Her Daughters Take Their Father’s Surname?
- 8 Is Tamaki Osaka still married to Leonard Francois?
- 9 Her daughter is the highest-paid female tennis player in the world
Tamaki, Naomi’s mother, grew raised in Nemuro, a coastal town on Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island. Naomi Osaka’s mother grew up in Nemuro, a town with one of the world’s least ethnically diversified communities.
Tamaki grew raised in Nemuro, a country with one of the world’s least ethnically diversified populations. It was a haven of uniformity at the time.
She only had a more diverse opponent when she transferred to a high school in Sapporo, Hokkaido’s capital. Although it is unknown what year she was born in, her birthday is on January 31st.
Tamaki met her husband, Leonard Francois, while she was a student
Tamaki met Naomi’s father, Francois, a college student from New York, when she was in high school. They quickly became involved. Tamaki’s parents, on the other hand, were opposed to her relationship with Francois, which led to their estrangement. It was due to a sense of rebellion in Japan, which dates back to the 1630s, when the Tokugawa shogunate isolated the archipelago from the rest of the world.
Tamaki Osaka claims that her parents were opposed to her relationship with Leonard Francois and that she was cut off from the family. Back then, the centuries-old sense of separatism had not completely faded, especially in places like Nemuro. Tamaki claims she was in her early twenties at the time. Her father wanted to discuss omiai, the process that would lead to her arranged marriage. However, after learning of their daughter’s secret relationship with a black man, her father exploded. They then cut her off from the family because she had brought shame to the family. Tamaki and Leonard relocated to the south of Osaka after a falling out with her parents.
Tamaki Osaka and Leonard Francois’s Marriage
When and where she married Francois is unknown. Tamaki, on the other hand, is thought to have married Leonard Francois in June. As a result, Tamaki, Osaka’s mother, tweeted in mid-June 2018. It included a collage of three photos: one of Francois shortly after the two met, one of Tamaki when she was younger, and one of their two toddler daughters. The Hokkaido native wrote a message above the nostalgic photos. It said:
“I was a ‘disgrace’ to my family, had been in the desert and jungles for decades, and I’m still alive.” It was followed by two emojis, a flexed arm and a red heart, as well as the hashtag #HappyLovingDay. According to the New York Times, Tamaki sent the tweet to commemorate her wedding date and the word “liberty.”
Osaka’s two daughters.
Leonard and Tamaki had two daughters, Mari and Naomi, after moving to Osaka in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Tamaki would have Japanese conversations with Naomi and Mari while they were at home and prepare kelp and rice-ball snacks for school. She also dressed them in kimonos for international days.
Tamaki’s husband began training their daughters from childhood
Naomi’s mother and father moved her and her sister to Long Island when Naomi was three years old. After hearing the story of Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams, Tamaki’s husband decided to teach tennis to his little girls.
Following that, the family relocated to southern Florida in 2006 to focus on their daughters’ tennis careers. Tamaki and Leonard spent the majority of the day training their daughters on the public courts in Pembroke Pines. They also homeschooled their daughters.
Is Tamaki Osaka still refusing to communicate with her parents?
Tamaki decided that her daughters should meet their Japanese family as they grew in strength and talent. She hadn’t spoken to them in nearly 15 years at this point. As a result, when the future Grand Slam champion was about 11 years old, she and her sister traveled to Japan to visit their grandparents.
It wasn’t, however, the joyful homecoming Tamaki had hoped for. Her parents were interested in the girls but mocked their homeschooling and tennis training regimen. They considered the sport to be a pastime rather than a profession.
Why Didn’t Her Daughters Take Their Father’s Surname?
Naomi and Mari have been more aware of their Asian heritage since they were babies. In fact, they adopted their mother’s surname rather than their father’s surname. Osaka is a Japanese surname that, strangely, is the same as the city where they were born.
Tamaki and Leonard did this in the hope that it would be useful for enrolling in schools and renting apartments. Their children, on the other hand, grew up in America, though their names would become a constant reminder of the homeland that they would one day represent. On numerous occasions, the former world number one credited her mother for encouraging her love of the sport.
Naomi Osaka revealed that her mother used to get up at four a.m. to go to work in order to provide for her daughters. Tamaki, her mother, she said, always put others first and encouraged her to embrace her differences. Her mother also worked hard to pay for flights and accommodations during tournaments, according to the five-foot-eleven-inch athlete. She would get up at four a.m. to earn the money needed to support her daughters’ tennis careers.
Tamaki, who worked in an office, was responsible for financially supporting the family. Leonard’s wife would leave for work at four a.m. Tamaki even slept in cars back then, according to a Netflix documentary about Osaka’s rise to success. Naomi stated in an interview that the prospect of earning money to assist her parents in their later years was a strong motivator for her.
Is Tamaki Osaka still married to Leonard Francois?
Tamaki is still married to her Haitian husband, Leonard. The couple is said to live on Long Island. It’s unclear, however, what the couple does now that they don’t have to worry about their daughters financially. Their occupation is unknown, but it is assumed that they both serve some managerial function for their Olympic Cauldron – daughter.
Her daughter is the highest-paid female tennis player in the world
Forbes will release its annual rankings of the highest-paid tennis players in August 2021. Naomi Tamaki, Tamaki’s daughter, is one of the world’s top five highest-paid tennis players. The athletes on the list made more money off the court than on it.
Osaka, who was ranked third at the time, surpassed Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic to become the second highest-earning tennis player in a given year. In 2020, she earned $5.1 million on the court and $55 million off the court, trailing only Swiss international Roger Federer, who earned more than $90 million off the court that year. Naomi Tamaki, Tamaki’s daughter, has – – deals with brands such as Nike, Sweetgreen, Barbie, and Nissan, among many others.
Not to mention that she is one of the most marketable athletes in the world. In terms of endorsement income, she ranked eighth among all athletes in 2020.
