Whenever Serena Williams plays Naomi Osaka, I’m always rooting for Serena. I’ve known of Serena longer, she’s closer to my age, and I’m all for the history she’s trying to make. But I must admit, there is a salve to the pang that inevitably comes when Serena loses if that loss is off the racket of Naomi Osaka. I can’t help it – I’m a fan of hers too.
So undoubtedly that night, more like morning, at 12:30 am (PST), I was up watching the Australian Open Women’s Semi-Final featuring these two. Not only did Naomi win, beating Serena for the third time out of their four meetings, she went on to win the whole thing.
Speaking of four, they were both going after “4” of sorts: Naomi quite literally 4, in terms the number of Grand Slam titles her eventual win would bring. As for Serena, well, go ahead put a 2 in front of that there numeral – 24. That’s right – amazing! That, of course, brings to mind another 4 – the number of letters in the acronym we’ve come to know Serena by.
The G.O.A.T. stepped on the professional tennis scene back in the 90s, before Naomi was even born, soon becoming a force to be reckoned with – only thing is, not many could. Her serve – ferocious, reaching speeds rivaling that of players on the men’s tour. She infused power into a game known for its finesse, and ushered in a style of play that changed the way many of her peers had to approach the sport if they wanted to win, if they hoped to hang. Indeed, she elevated the game.
When you think about Black people and sports, basketball, football and track & field probably come to mind. You might even toss baseball and volleyball into the mix. But tennis? It’s not typically tennis.
Tennis has this image of being a very White sport – and not just any White sport, but an elite White sport. It has an air of high society unassociated with that others sports say, like baseball or hockey. With that exclusivity comes an underlined insinuation of white superiority that gives way to white privilege.
While the word “privilege,” in this respect, is warranted given the advantages that accompany whiteness in America and indeed the world, it’s also an insidious burden of sorts for those who experience it. The arbitrary advantages that come along with whiteness, deceptively lead many of those who benefit from it to believe they are inherently better than others. And this idea of being better, which is so pervasively enforced and reinforced in society, has become a taken-for-granted assumption generally accepted by all people – White or otherwise — inevitably shapes how Whites feel about themselves and form their personal identity.
Then someone like Serena comes along – practically a polar opposite of the typical player, a black girl from Compton – and not only makes space for herself in a sport where there’s only been a few like her, but transforms the game, that it plays a role in exposing the lie of white superiority not only in tennis, but in general. And that’s why a person like Serena is so hated, is so abhorred, is so intimidating, because she, in the pursuit and achievement of her dreams have exposed a longstanding rumor parading as truth for the lie that it really it.
It must be devastating to think you’re one thing, only to begin to be confronted with the fact that you’re not.
So they called her names, and she kept on winning.
They made fun of her looks, and she kept on winning.
Maria Sharapova became the highest paid female athlete over her, even as she kept on winning.
They scrutinized her fashion choices and she kept on winning.
They seemed to incongruently drug test her, and she kept on winning.
She kept on wining, and winning and winning, until all the world could do was watch perhaps in contempt, for some disbelief, but undoubtedly—admittedly or not – in awe.
Among those watching was another brown-skinned girl, born of a Japanese mother and Haitian father, who’d sit up high in the stands at the US Open. With unfortunate bad seats, she had the privilege of seeing what the brown-skinned woman on the court, as a little girl, never got to – someone who looks like her winning…routinely.
Even with four Grand Slam titles and all the publicity she’s received since 2018 US Open win, it still feels like I don’t know much about Naomi Osaka. She’s a bit of a mystery to me. And that’s saying something because I pride myself on being able to observe someone and breakdown their personality, psychoanalyze them if you will. When I do this, of course, I think I’m right, but there’s always the possibility, maybe even probability, that I might be wrong. Yet with Naomi Osaka, I can’t even come up with enough corroborating data to give my two-cents – the results, inconclusive.
There’s the ostensible contrast between the fierce Naomi her opponents get during a match, and the shy one the rest of us gets when she’s not at play. Though guarded, she’s dropped some clues that they are one in the same. Take her 2018 post semi-final win interview where, in her sweet, almost little-girly voice she declared, “…I really want to play Serena.”
By then, she had already beaten Serena in the Miami Open. She’d watched her, and studied her for years growing up. And even had Serena’s former hitting partner as her coach. Naomi Osaka was willing to take on the woman she admired – a woman whom, in many respects paved the way – with no fear. Twice she’s stood int the way of Serena getting her 24th Grand Slam title, yet only viewed the matches as Serena standing in the way of her first and fourth titles.
As much as I hate the role that Naomi’s played in thwarting Serena’s quest for 24, that’s also what I love about her. When I was in my twenties there was this culture of paying your dues, wait your turn, eventually there will be time for you. I didn’t like it then and even now, I think it’s the wrong move. Yes, there can be a wisdom that comes with age and experience, but there can also be an uninhibited power that comes with youth.
At almost 40, with the years of wear and tear both physically and mentally, and tennis ingenues — unafraid to put her to the test — wanting to make their own history, one thing is clear, while I believe she can do, it’s going to be a hard road to 24 and beyond for Serena.
Then again, it’s going to be a hard road to 24 and beyond for Naomi Osaka too.
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