Top 10 Facts about Mari Osaka

Photo by Josephine Gasser on Unsplash

Top 10 Facts about Mari Osaka

Former tennis player and fashion designer Mari Osaka hails from Japan. Mari Osaka will be well known to tennis fans. She has been playing tennis since she was a teenager, and she proudly represented Japan on the tennis court.

Osaka was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father. The family later relocated to Long Island, New York where she grew up in Fort Lauderdale. In the world of tennis, she and her sister have been compared to Serena and Venus Williams. Here are the top 10 facts about her.

1. Mari Osaka was born on April 3, 1996

Mari Osaka was born in Osaka, Japan, on April 3, 1996. Tamaki Osaka, her mother, is Japanese, and Leonard Francois, her father, is Haitian. Her family relocated to the United States when she was four years old. She was raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with her younger sister.

2. Mari is the eldest sister of Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka smiles during her match against Azarenka in the 2020 US Open Finals photo by Andrew Henkelman – Wikimedia commons

Mari is Naomi Osaka’s older sister, with whom she has worked on several occasions. Mari is one year of Naomi’s seniors. Naomi Osaka is a professional tennis player from Japan. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has ranked her world No. 1 in singles, making her the first Asian player to hold that position. Naomi Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion, having won the Australian Open twice and the US Open twice.

3. She uses her mother’s name 

Like her younger sister, Mari opted for Osaka as her name rather than Francois, the name of their father. It’s also the name of the town in which the two sisters were born. The reason for using their mother’s name is not because their father was not present, but because it has always been something he is comfortable with.

She gave an example of how the early years they spent in Japan before moving to the United States served a “practical purpose” for why she should compete under her mother’s name rather than her father’s name.

4. She was trained by her father 

The outdoors piqued the curiosity of both sisters, who later on developed into successful tennis players. Their father served as the foundation for their aspirations. The sisters enrolled in the Florida Tennis SBT Academy and the ProWorld Tennis Academy after completing “Broward Virtual Middle High School” to pursue tennis professionally. Their father took on the role of coach.

5. Mari chose to represent Japan over the USA

Flag of Japan (bordered, unrounded corners) photo by User: Bangin – Wikimedia commons

Their father desired for his daughters to represent both Japan and Haiti. The reason for this is that the US Tennis Association was not interested in nurturing the girls when they were in their formative stages, claiming that they were not good enough. The girls had no objections when their father decided that they would play for Japan.

6. She made her WTA Tour debut in 2014

At the 2014 Bank of the West Classic, Osaka made her WTA Tour debut in the doubles competition, teaming up with Marina Shamayko. She was defeated by Varvara Lepchenko and Ajla Tomljanović in the opening round. However, the exposure gave her tremendous confidence.

Her younger sister, Naomi, began her professional tennis career the same year. The 2014 Bank of the West Classic was a professional tennis tournament played on hard courts. It was the 43rd edition of the tournament, which was part of the WTA Premier tournaments of the 2014 WTA Tour. It took place in Stanford, United States between 28 July and 3 August 2014. It was the first women’s event in the 2014 US Open Series.

7. She made her WTA Tour singles debut at the 2019 Miami Open

She received a wildcard into the main draw of the 2019 Miami Open and made her WTA Tour debut there, losing to Whitney Osuigwe. The 2019 Miami Open was an outdoor hard court professional men’s and women’s tennis competition that began on March 18, 2019 and finished on March 31, 2019.

It was the 35th Miami Open and a part of the 2019 WTA Tour’s Premier Mandatory category as well as the 2019 ATP Tour’s Masters 1000 category.

8. She announced her retirement from professional tennis in early 2021

Mari Osaka, Naomi Osaka’s older sister, quit tennis at the age of 24 in early 2021, claiming she does not enjoy the sport. Mari, who was ranked number 340 in the WTA rankings then, primarily played on the ITF circuit. Mari had only played once in 2021, losing in straight sets to Sarah Hamner in the first round of qualification in an ITF tournament in Georgia, USA on January 25.

Mari announced her retirement on Instagram, saying she didn’t love playing the sport and that it was time to call it quits and focus on other things.

9. Mari Osaka was a better tennis player than Naomi

Just because Mari retired doesn’t mean that she couldn’t give Naomi a run for her money. Today Naomi is the one that the majority of people know. However, Marie was the better of the two sisters when they both started. For many years Naomi had tried to beat her older sister but it would take a massive 12 years before she got to make it against her.

In 2019 in an interview with The New York Times, Naomi once told The New York Times that back when they were kids, her older sister used to beat her all the time in matches.

10. Mari currently has a focus on art and fashion design

Photo by Mika Korhonen on Unsplash

She has focused on her art and fashion design after retiring, notably co-designing her sister Naomi’s Met Gala dress in the fall of 2021. Osaka’s prior artistic work includes designing special COVID masks for UNICEF and illustrating the cover of GQ Japan’s June 2020 issue, which features her sister.

Naomi Osaka was on the cover of GQ Japan’s June issue, which was drawn by her older sister Mari Osaka. Mari Osaka, a tennis player and seemingly brilliant illustrator, portrayed her younger sister in a series of bold, attractive, and forceful images.

Here are  some of the best Japanese tennis players .