Naomi Osaka unveils refurbished courts where she trained as a child, says she plays better if she's "driven about something"
On Thursday, Naomi Osaka helped unveil the newly refurbished courts at Detective Keith L. Williams Park in Jamaica, Queens. Those are the same courts where the four-time Grand Slam champion trained during her childhood.
Osaka played there between the ages of 3 and 8, before moving to Florida with her family. The refurbishment was undertaken by BODYARMOR, a Queens-based company, which is also one of the 23-year-old's sponsors.
The unveiling ceremony also included a tennis clinic for kids, who were given first-hand experience of drills to improve their groundstrokes, volleys and serves.
Speaking to the press before the US Open begins on Monday, Naomi Osaka revealed that this was the first time she had returned to the Detective Keith L. Williams Park since her childhood. Osaka added that she felt warmly welcomed by the community she grew up in.
"It was definitely an incredible feeling," Naomi Osaka said. "I haven't gone back there since I moved to Florida, so maybe around like eight or so."
"I would say the most awesome part about it is that all of the people that I remembered from when I was a kid were still there," she added. "They all came out. They were all telling me to call my mom and call my dad because they had so many things they wanted to tell them. Honestly, it felt like a big family. Everyone there used to take care of me as a kid. Just to see them all being healthy and happy was an incredible feeling."
The refurbishing of the courts at the Detective Keith L. Williams Park is just one of several initiatives that Naomi Osaka has undertaken with the aim of making a positive impact on the lives of others.
Osaka, whose father is from Haiti, recently donated her prize money from the Cincinnati event to victims of the Haitian earthquake. She also has a collaboration with NIKE and the Laureus Academy for the Play Academy project, which seeks to positively influence the lives of young girls through play and sport.
Perhaps most famously, Naomi Osaka wore a different mask for all seven of her matches at the US Open title last year to highlight the issue of racial injustice. Not surprisingly, the 23-year-old told the media on Friday that she is more driven when she is playing for a goal larger than her own success.
"I would say definitely for me, I'm the type of player that plays better if I have a reason or if I have a goal or if I'm driven about something," Osaka said. "Definitely in New York last year the biggest goal for me was just to push that message across. I feel like I did well there."
"Right now, I don't really have that big of a message to push across at all," she added. "So it's going to be really interesting to see what drives me. Of course, I'm a competitor and I want to win. There's that feeling of wanting to I guess do better than last year."
I feel pretty happy with how I'm playing" - Naomi Osaka
Despite claiming back-to-back Slams at Flushing Meadows and Melbourne Park over the last year, Naomi Osaka has struggled on and off the court in recent times. She pulled out of the French Open after getting slapped with a $15,000 fine for skipping her press conferences, following which she skipped Wimbledon and lost early at both the Tokyo Olympics and the Cincinnati event.
The defending US Open champion is, therefore, looking to adopt the 'one match at a time' approach in New York. She expressed hope that things would work out well once she got a little more match practice under her belt.
"I know I haven't played that many matches," Osaka said. "I know that I haven't even gotten to a quarter-final. Actually, I feel pretty happy with how I'm playing. I thought I played two really tough matches in Cincinnati. The girl that I lost to, she played really well. I didn't play her before, so I had no information on her."
"It's like one of those things where you do have to have a match rhythm," she added. "Of course, I played literally no tournaments before that match. I feel pretty confident with where I am right now. I'm not declaring that I'll do amazing here. For me, I'm the one-match-at-a-time like person. Yeah, hopefully it will work out in the end."
Naomi Osaka opens the defense of her US Open title with a first-round match against World No. 86 Marie Bouzkova on Monday.