What a view | Naomi Osaka Netflix documentary offers a sympathetic portrait of the tennis star
- In Netflix’s ‘beyond the sport’ documentary, the Japanese tennis star is shown as solitary, contemplative and compassionate – and uncomfortable in the spotlight
- ‘Life’s just full of tests,’ the 23-year-old says at one point in the three-part series – which is surely a taster for future appointments with Netflix
If anything can make you feel sympathy for a 23-year-old athlete afloat in oceans of cash, winning major tennis titles and gracing magazine covers, then this is it.
In Netflix’s “beyond the sport” documentary Naomi Osaka, the first Japanese player to win a grand slam and top the world rankings paints a complicated self-portrait: a reluctant, world-famous “face” from whom it seems there will be much more to come than simply amassing trophies.
Born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, Osaka renounced her American citizenship in 2019 in recognition of her Japanese heritage. And now she is the dominant image of Japan’s Olympic Games.
Though she might sometimes question her mental toughness on court in this three-part series – surely a taster for future appointments with Netflix – it seems like Osaka has more inner steel than even she realises.
In action, we see her battling back from a seemingly hopeless position to win the 2020 US Open; next, off court, she’s marching in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.