Naomi Osaka is the new money machine - even without wasabi in your hair
Serena Williams has a successor - at least in terms of finance. Now Naomi Osaka is at the top of the money list.
by SID
last edit:
May 28, 2020, 09:30 am
Naomi Osaka looks a bit incredulous. Vinegar, mayonnaise, wasabi? To care for curls? The curls of Stefanos Tsitsipas to be more precise, because with her Greek tennis colleague the Japanese chatted for an hour about this and that via Instagram. And since Osaka has a reputation for always being a little scurry, Tsitsipas stumbled around. He likes to do that.
The fact that Naomi Osaka, daughter of a Japanese and a Haitian, likes to come across as blue-eyed and dreamy does not change her sporting skills. And they are remarkable. So remarkable that the number ten in the world according to the Forbes list is now the world's highest-paid athlete. Japan's answer to Scrooge McDuck, a female money machine, so to speak.
At the age of 22, Osaka won two Grand Slam titles and topped the world rankings for a total of 24 weeks - as the first Asian tennis professional ever. This has literally more than paid off: Osaka is said to have earned around $ 37.4 million (€ 34.3 million) in the past twelve months. $ 1.4 million more than her great idol Serena Williams.
With a victory over that very Serena Williams Osaka had entered the big stage almost two years ago, the title at the 2018 US Open made her an attraction for the sponsors. Large corporations such as Nike, Procter and Gamble, All Nippon Airways and the automobile manufacturer Nissan offered her lucrative partnerships.
Naomi Osaka: "When I'm on the court, it's all about tennis for me"
However, Osaka does not give the impression that the gigantic sums of money can upset you. Already after the success over Williams in that scandalous New York final, when her role model was not exemplary, Osaka said: "It doesn't matter what happens outside of the court. When I'm on the court, it's fine for me just about tennis. "
With this tactic Osaka is very successful, in 2019 she immediately won her second Grand Slam title with the triumph at the Australian Open. There followed a short crisis of meaning and the separation from her successful coach Sascha Bajin , which was apparently announced out of nowhere , for which there has been no public explanation to this day.
Then Osaka flipped the switch again, the tournament victories in their hometown Osaka (!) And at the China Open in Beijing let the donors take a deep breath. It was intended as the face of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, after the transfer to the coming year and the break on the professional tour, Osaka and her millions of followers now have to pass the time.
And now she did that together with Stefanos Tsitsipas. "Would you cut your hair for a million?" Osaka asks. "Probably yes," replies "Tsitsi", he had already thought about it anyway.
Oh yes, the wasabi, vinegar and mayonnaise hair pack finally dissolved Tsitsipas. "Did you really believe that," he asks Osaka. She looks the way Naomi Osaka is looking. And she probably believed it too.