Naomi Osaka is one of a growing number of famous top athletes who is half Japanese. (at the 2022 US Open, (© Frank Franklin II/AP)
Naomi Osaka’s bio page on the WTA Tour website provides a quick snapshot of a glaring problem she hasn’t fixed this year. Scroll down to the MORE ON OSAKA section, which begins this way: “Currently without a full-time coach.”
Clearly, based on her results this season, Osaka needs a full-time coach.
She needs an expert’s daily advice, a tennis sage with a proven track record of maximizing players’ talents for decades. A fearless mentor who isn’t afraid to criticize her for her on-court mistakes, someone to push her to practice more efficiently and perform more consistently.
Since parting ways with former coach Wim Fissette, a decision that was announced in July, her father, Leonard Francois, has instructed her on a part-time basis.
Francois served as Osaka’s first coach when she was a kid. Their familial bond is important, but this observer believes it’s not a cure for Osaka’s ailing tennis.
Indeed, injuries have had an impact on performance, and she’s been hampered by an Achilles injury and a lower back ailment this year.
Read the full story, here, on JAPAN Forward's dedicated sports website, SportsLook.
Author: Ed Odeven
Follow Ed on JAPAN Forward’s [Japan Sports Notebook] here on Sundays, in [Odds and Evens] here during the week, and Twitter ＠ed_odeven, and find him on JAPAN Forward’s dedicated sports website, SportsLook.
