The cameras of the American platform followed the introvert world number two for three years, from his rise to his most intense phases of depression.
She surprised the whole world last May by announcing her withdrawal from Roland Garros. Under pressure and to preserve her health, especially after boycotting press conferences, Naomi Osaka, current world number two, preferred to leave. Less than two months after this stormy episode, Netflix has been offering a documentary dedicated to the tennis star since last Friday. Divided into three parts, it lifts the veil on the depressive personality of the champion.
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If her abandonment at the Grand Slam tournament in Paris is not told, we nevertheless understand how she got there. Helmet screwed onto her ears before entering a court, with her face often closed, Naomi Osaka is a great introvert who only comes out on rare occasions. Even facing Ellen DeGeneres who received her on her talk show, the young woman is not very locative. Naomi Osaka does not understand her notoriety and finds it difficult to live with it. “I think all the attention I get is ridiculousShe says at the start of the documentary as she is seen signing tennis balls and playing selfies. The athlete, born to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, confides that during her childhood spent in the United States, she spoke only to her sister in the schoolyard.
“Tennis is useless”
Quite naturally, it is in a solitary sport, practiced from the age of three, that she thrives. And at just 21, she became the greatest tennis champion Japan has ever known. It was in 2018, when Naomi Osaka won the US Open. From there, everything is linked. World number one title, highest paid player in the world, she also landed contracts with prestigious brands such as Nike. It was also during this period that she chose to give up American nationality in order to obtain Japanese nationality, as Japan did not allow dual nationality beyond the age of 22.
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An ascent that came too quickly? Behind the scenes, the star seems unhappy. There is this sudden notoriety to manage of course but also his level of play and the expectations around. Nervous and anxious, she does not sleep the night before a competition. The tragic disappearance in a helicopter crash of her friend, basketball player Kobe Bryant particularly affects her as evidenced by a touching scene in the film, produced by another basketball legend LeBron James, where she is in tears. On her birthday, surrounded by those close to her, she asks herself lots of questions about her usefulness in her profession. “Tennis is useless», She adds in one of the many moments of introspection that make up the documentary. What if tennis stops? What would she have done if she hadn’t become champion? So many questions that regularly invade his mind, betraying a state of depression.
She finally finds meaning in her fame by using it for causes close to her heart such as police violence against blacks in the United States after the death of George Floyd. In August 2020, during the Cincinnati tournament, she refused to play her semi-final to protest the police shooting on Jacob Blake. A few weeks later, during the US Open, which she won for the second time, she wears at each of her meetings, seven different black masks on which are inscribed the name of a victim of police violence. “The goal is to untie the tongues“, Justifies the one who finds his own for the fights which are dear to him.
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