The 22-year-old Japanese tennis player racked up $37 million in earnings in the past year, more than any other female athlete in history.
Naomi Osaka was only a year old when Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam title in 1999. Nineteen years later, Osaka beat Williams at the U.S. Open final to win her first Grand Slam. It was one of the most controversial matches in Open history, involving three code violations called against Williams. Now the 22-year-old ace has beaten her legendary rival once again, this time for bragging rights as the highest-paid female athlete in the world.
Osaka earned $37.4 million the last 12 months from prize money and endorsements, $1.4 million more than Serena, setting an all-time earnings record for a female athlete in a single year; Maria Sharapova previously held the record with $29.7 million in 2015.
Osaka ranks No. 29 among the 100 highest-paid athletes while Williams is No. 33. It’s the first time since 2016 that two women have made the ranks of the 100 highest-paid athletes, with the full 2020 list set for release next week.
“To those outside the tennis world, Osaka is a relatively fresh face with a great back story,” says David Carter, a sports business professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business. “Combine that with being youthful and bicultural, two attributes that help her resonate with younger, global audiences, and the result is the emergence of a global sports marketing icon.”
The ascension puts an end to a decisive winning streak for Williams, who has been the world’s highest-paid female athlete each of the past four years, with annual pre-tax income ranging from $18 million to $29 million. The 23-time Grand Slam champion has collected almost $300 million during her career from endorsers that have swarmed the 38-year-old star.
Osaka’s rise to the head of the charts was a perfect convergence of several factors. She first proved herself on the court, with back-to-back Grand Slam titles at the 2018 U.S. Open and the 2019 Australian Open. That plus her heritage—a Japanese mother and a Haitian-American father—helped separate her from the pack; at only 20 when she won her Open title, she had a cool factor and an engaging personality.
Osaka’s roots are crucial to her endorsement stardom. She was born in Japan. When she was 3, she and her family moved to the U.S., settling on Long Island and then heading to Florida; her older sister, Mari, also plays on the pro circuit.
She turned pro in 2014, a month before her 16th birthday. She cracked the WTA’s top 40 in 2016 and won her first title in March 2018 at Indian Wells. In the 12 months that followed, she became the first Japanese player to win a Slam, and the first Asian tennis player ever to be ranked No. 1 in the world.
Osaka held dual citizenship growing up but made the wise choice to represent Japan ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, now postponed to 2021. The decision made her an even hotter commodity for Olympic sponsors, like Procter & Gamble, All Nippon Airways and Nissin, which signed endorsement deals with Osaka to use her around marketing for the Games. She is expected to be one of the faces of the Olympics, which had triggered unprecedented levels of excitement among the Japanese public before the coronavirus outbreak.
A Decade Of Highest-Paid Female Athletes
Tennis has been a winning strategy for the highest-paid female athletes. Before Naomi Osaka arrived on the scene, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams were the top-earning women of the decade, holding the top spot for five and four years, respectively.
The last top-earning female athlete outside of Williams and Sharapova was Serena’s sister Venus in 2003. Tennis remains the only route for women to rank alongside the top-paid male sports stars. Sharapova, Li Na, Serena Williams and now Osaka are the only women to rank among the 100 top earners in sports since 2012. The highest-paid female athlete every year since Forbes started tracking the data in 1990 has been a tennis player, with Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis the top earners for most of the 1990s.
Tennis players are walking billboards in the only major global sport where men and women have some level of equality in their paychecks, thanks to similarly sized audiences tuning in to watch tournaments. Prize money at the four Grand Slam events has been even since 2007, although men still earn more at lower-level tourneys.
The demographics of the tennis fan make sponsoring top players attractive for brands. At the U.S. Open last year, attendance skewed in favor of women by a ratio of 56 to 44, a rarity at big-time sporting events; 78% held at least a bachelor’s degree versus 35% for the U.S. overall; the average household income was $216,000. This is a group with significant disposable income, ready to buy apparel, sporting equipment, cars, watches and financial services.
Steering Osaka’s brand is powerhouse tennis agency IMG, which leaned on its history with breakout female tennis stars when Osaka started blowing up, having represented Sharapova and Li. Stuart Duguid is her lead agent at IMG.
The apparel deal is almost always the biggest endorsement for tennis stars, and Osaka’s timing was perfect there as well as she hit the open market just after winning two Grand Slams. It triggered a free agency bidding war between Nike and Adidas—her previous apparel sponsor. The Swoosh emerged on top and paid her more than $10 million last year in an agreement that runs through 2025.
Osaka secured an extremely rare but lucrative provision in her Nike contract. The sportswear giant always requires its tennis players to be clad in Nike gear from head to toe, without any other logos on their shirts or hats. This is lucrative real estate for marketers because cameras focus closely on the player as they serve or get set to return serve.
Nike never made an exemption for Williams, Sharapova, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi or any of the other marketable tennis stars in its stable. The only exception until last year was China’s Li; Osaka became the second, thanks to massive leverage with Sharapova headed for retirement and Williams turning 39 this year. Her “patch” deals are with All Nippon Airways, MasterCard and ramen noodle maker Nissin Foods.
Nike plans to launch an Osaka streetwear line in Japan in the fourth quarter, featuring hoodies, leggings and shirts, as well as a new collection each season. There will not be any tennis apparel.
Osaka now has 15 endorsement partners, including global brands like Nissan Motor, Shiseido and Yonex, whose tennis racquets she has used for more than a decade; almost all are worth seven figures annually.
Sharapova was 17 when she defeated Williams to win the 2004 Wimbledon crown. IMG quickly mobilized to lock up lucrative long-term deals for the Russian, who ranked as the highest-paid female athlete for 11 years before injuries and a suspension for taking a banned substance dented her earnings.
IMG got an education on marketing a female Asian tennis star with China’s Li. She became the first Grand Slam singles champion from Asia, man or woman, when she captured the 2011 French Open at age 29. IMG quickly secured seven multimillion-dollar deals, pushing her off-court earnings from $2 million to $20 million. She challenged Sharapova as the sport’s top earner until her retirement in 2014.
IMG used its expertise in Japan with Kei Nishikori, who has never won a Grand Slam but is the most successful Japanese male player ever, resulting in an endorsement portfolio worth $30 million a year.
Sharapova, Li and Nishikori paved the way for Osaka’s marketing breakthrough. “We were fortunate to have a very sophisticated office in Tokyo that already had the experience with Kei,” IMG’s head of tennis Max Eisenbud told Forbes last year. “The relationships in that region are important.”
With plenty of endorsement cash, Osaka partnered with several brands last year, with significant equity components, including emerging sports drink BodyArmor and Hyperice, which makes recovery and movement products.
BodyArmor marketing exec Mike Fedele says Osaka was one of the inspirations for its “Only You” ad campaign launched this week. “Naomi is fiercely dedicated to perfecting her game on the court and a huge part of that is what she does off the court with her training, nutrition and hydration,”he says.
“I’m really interested in seeing a young business grow and adding value to that process,” Osaka told Forbes last year. “I tasked my team with finding brands that align with my personality and my interests.”
Brands are lining up to get into the Naomi Osaka business.
He left Haiti for a better life. Twenty years later he's playing soccer in Milwaukee and enjoying every minute.
Max Ferdinand is blessed. He says that a lot.
Most times Ferdinand is talking about his life in soccer, about the success he’s had making his teammates look good, about a championship or the friends he has made over 4½ years in Milwaukee.
Most times. Because that’s the Max Ferdinand most people know.
He’s the Milwaukee Wave’s quiet star with the deft touch and million-watt smile. Ferdinand has managed to make a living in the game he played tirelessly as a child, and for that he understands how fortunate he is.
But go deeper.
Go back to his childhood. Go back to Haiti, the impoverished Caribbean nation further devastated by a 2010 earthquake, where none of these other things would have been possible.
“I moved to the States when I was 13,” said Ferdinand, who went to New York City to live with the father who had left when he was 2 and a stepmother who didn’t speak his language.
His mom stayed behind in Haiti. Ferdinand left his friends, his school and his culture there, too.
“New everything,” he said.
“But I was very fortunate to come here and have a better life compared to Haiti. I know how many of my friends I left back there in not such a good situation also. So it’s definitely a blessing to come here.”
Everyone has his struggles and challenges, Ferdinand says. There’s not a contest. By telling his story, he’s not looking for sympathy or extra credit. It’s just part of who he is, and someone asked.
Tilden High School in Brooklyn had a sizable Haitian population, so Ferdinand sensed some connection to his old home. His stepmother, born in Grenada, spoke no Creole, so English was the primary language at home, and he picked it up quickly.
Because basketball is to New York what soccer is to Haiti – with playground pickup games from dusk to dawn, where skill means more than age – Ferdinand learned to play.
“I’m all right,” said Ferdinand, now 33 but still a spindly 5-foot-9. “You challenge me, we can play anytime.”
He is, after all, a competitor.
Ferdinand actually stepped away from soccer briefly, but after moving to Baltimore he found a team and picked up the game again.
Reinvigorated, Ferdinand made the Baltimore Blast indoor team on an open tryout and spent his first six seasons there before Wave star Ian Bennett – an outdoor teammate with the Rochester Rhinos – helped bring the speedy, cerebral forward to Milwaukee.
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Veteran forward Max Ferdinand takes a breather between drills at Milwaukee Wave practice. (Photo: Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Here Ferdinand became known for an infectious smile, his headgear – a trademark since he suffered head injuries early in his career – and his quiet demeanor and unselfishness.
Ferdinand led the MASL in assists in 2016-17 and 2017-18, has finished among the top three each season and was ranked third entering the weekend. The defending champion Wave (9-4) split a pair of games over the weekend and next plays at 5 p.m. Sunday against the Florida Tropics at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
“I don’t think he’s a guy who wants to shine, to be the star, so he’s more than happy to make other guys look good,” Wave captain Marcio Leite said. “He’s a big reason Ian scores so many goals, their relationship. Ian loves scoring, and Max loves passing the ball, so it’s a great thing we’ve got going on.”
In 13 games, Ferdinand is second on the team with 29 points on 10 goals and a team-leading 19 assists. Bennett leads with 31 points on 27 goals and four assists.
“Max is one of those guys, a guy who’s always thinking, how can we score, what can I do?” Leite said. “And he’s creative. He finds some passes that nobody else would.
“It’s hard to defend, because you never know what Max can do. He can dribble you, he can pass, he can score. But there’s always a little trick, a little something that he pulls out of his sleeve and all of a sudden somebody is scoring.”
In addition to finding his place on the team with the Wave, Ferdinand also has made a comfortable home in Milwaukee. It’s a far cry from Brooklyn and even farther from Haiti but fits his laidback personality.
“Enjoying it every day,” he said.
The community, the game, the team and his life – all of it – Ferdinand enjoys. He is blessed.
Ferdinand’s mother, who resettled in New Jersey, watches the Wave play online and they talk afterward. She didn’t get to see the team win the 2019 MASL title in person, but he hopes to help give her another chance.
Ferdinand has yet to go back to Haiti as an adult, but he intends for that to happen as well.
His mother has 12 siblings and family spread about the East Coast, Ferdinand said, and the hope is that as many aunts and uncles and cousins as possible could visit together. He has kept up with some old friends and keeps them in his heart.
“It’s a poor country. Poverty, no food. Not clean water,” Ferdinand said. “Back then it was bad. I can imagine now after the earthquake.
“You just got to pray, right? I appreciate being here for sure.”
Haiti defeats Panama 6-0 in final qualifying match
HOUSTON — Nerilia Mondesir and Mikerline Saint-Felix each scored twice and Haiti beat Panama 6-0 Monday in the group stage of the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying tournament.
It was the final match of the tournament for both teams. The United States and Costa Rica already secured the group’s two spots in the semifinals. Eight teams are playing in the tournament which determines the region’s two spots in the Tokyo Games this summer.
The top-ranked U.S. national team plays Costa Rica in the late match Monday at BBVA Compass Stadium.
Mondesir scored on a penalty kick in the fifth minute, and Saint-Feliz added goals in the 11th and 29th to give Haiti a 3-0 first-half lead. Melchie Daelle Dumonay and Batcheba Louis scored in the second half before Mondesir capped scoring with a goal in the 84th minute.
Panama goalkeeper and captain Yenith Bailey did not play after she was injured in the team’s 8-0 loss to the United States on Friday. Sasha Fabregas replaced her in goal for the final match.
Montreal Impact sign Haiti international Steeven Saba
TRANSFER TRACKER: Signing
The Montreal Impact roster build ahead of the 2020 MLS season continues, as they announced Tuesday the signing of Haitian international midfielder Steeven Saba on a one-year contract. The deal includes options for 2021 and 2022, and will be official upon receipt of his international transfer certificate.
Saba, who holds an American passport and won’t count as an international player, had been in preseason camp with Montreal as a trialist.
“Steven confirmed the qualities we saw before inviting him to camp,” said Montreal Impact sporting director Olivier Renard. “We are very happy to see him join the Impact and start the second phase of training camp as a full-time player.”
Saba, 26, spent the last two seasons with Violette Athletic Club, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in the Championnat national. He made his senior international debut for Haiti on May 30, 2018, and has since appeared in 12 matches. Saba was named to the Best XI of the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup group stage as Les Grenadiers made the tournament's semifinal round.
Saba was previously part of the US U-18 national team and featured for Weston FC, a US Soccer Development Academy program based in Florida.
Montreal are busy preparing for their Concacaf Champions League opener Feb. 19 against Saprissa. It’ll be the club’s first season under head coach Thierry Henry, with their MLS opener set for Feb. 29 at home against the New England Revolution.
What Kobe Bryant’s death has taught me about how Black men mourn
Sunday afternoon I was at the Sundance Film Festival when I looked down at my phone and realized I had about a dozen unread messages from friends and colleagues all with the same message: “KOBE IS DEAD.”
Fortunately, my friend — an avid basketball fan who I often catch watching NBA games on his phone or laptop whenever we have the audacity to invite him out during basketball season — had just stepped out of the theater to make a phone call right before I saw those texts. Which gave me time to figure out how I was going to break the news to him that his hero, Kobe Bean Bryant, was gone.
But when he walked back in two minutes later, the stunned expression on his face let me know someone else had beaten me to the punch. He looked gutted; his eyes wet with unshed tears and his usual smile replaced by a tight grimace of disbelief.
The next few hours of film festival activities were a blur. We went to a swank brunch we’d been excited to attend just that morning, but now the chatter of shiny industry folks milling about us felt meaningless, and the carefully prepared gourmet food plated before us tasted dull and almost too heavy to swallow.
I tried to distract myself by making small talk with the folks seated at our table. But every time I looked at my phone, a new detail would come out: Kobe was on the flight with his daughter Gianna when he died. They were headed to her game to speak to a crowd of excited kids. There were seven other fatalities on that flight. Making it worse, TMZ broke the news before the family was even notified.
It began to feel like a constant barrage of bad news, with each update digging the knife even deeper into our chests. Until finally, while we stood backstage waiting for a film panel to begin, my dear friend, who I always tease about not showing enough emotion, threw down his phone, and let himself cry.
As I leaned over to rub his back and console him, in my periphery I noticed three other Black men in our vicinity staring off into the distance and holding back tears of their own. That’s when it hit me that even though we were all mourning the loss of Kobe Bryant, for brothers in particular, this one hit differently.
When death is swift and cruel
As someone who has had to deal with the mourning process a lot over the last two years, it has been my lived experience that there is death… and then there is sudden death.
Both are painful, but the latter has an extra bite to it that leaves you feeling as if you’ve been betrayed by time, and also wishing you could go back and savor moments you previously took for granted.
That’s why the swift and cruel timing of Kobe Bryant’s passing, just hours after Lebron James passed him on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, felt like a sick joke. Most of us — myself included — expected Kobe to grow old in the public consciousness. For people in my age group specifically, he was the first NBA player we watched play out his entire career from start to finish and then segue into an exciting new chapter after retirement.
He was a North Star of sorts. We grew up with him and therefore, whether we realized it or not, his mortality was tied to our own, with his death feeling just as abstract and distant as we would all hope ours to be.
The Black Mamba was equal parts man and myth. As accessible as he was to several generations of sports fans, to Black men in particular, he was a flesh and blood reminder of what they could achieve and evolve into, even after making potentially life-damaging mistakes.
Let’s be real, this world and particularly this country isn’t known for giving Black men second chances, or even first ones. Since enslavement, our men have been seen as property; sexually deviant brutes with no humanity or tenderness to speak of. They’ve been portrayed as unfeeling caricatures and dismissed as emotionally unintelligent aggressors who only seek to pound their chests and assert their dominance while instilling fear in the hearts of their women and white counterparts.
And the saddest part is many of them have bought into this image of themselves. Black men are supposed to be things not people, with the only exception being made for the Ivy League, super articulate, Obama archetypes who are so perfect in their presentation that even the mainstream has to begrudgingly acknowledge their “Black Excellence.”
But then there was Kobe; flawed, focused, unrelenting Kobe.
A misstep and subsequent assault charge early in his career made the sheen of perfection an impossible distinction for him. To many, that should have been the end of his story, leaving him dismissed as yet another bad boy Black male athlete with an asterisk next to his name.
But true to that “Mamba mentality” he refused to let the biggest mistake of his life define him, and instead spent 20 years grabbing life by the neck and shaking every bit of goodness out of it he could.
Right before our eyes, we watched a tall lanky kid become a good man, in the most breathtaking sense of the word. A devoted husband, a proud “girl dad” and a tenacious and formidable athlete whose prowess on the court was only outshined by his generosity towards his teammates and fans.
For Black men, Kobe Bryant was their redemption song, their constant reminder that they could be more than whatever box society chose to put them in. He was the brother, childhood friend, and superhero they all needed to tap into when everything else on the planet conspired to tell them they weren’t good enough.
Because of this, they let themselves love him deeply, and attach themselves to him as if he was family. But that’s the tricky thing about love. Whenever you give anything (or anyone) the power to make you that happy, you’re also giving them the ability to break your heart into a million little pieces.
It’s ok to cry
Black people are probably some of the proudest and most unflinching humans on the planet, and our men in particular excel at this. As a result many of us women, can go years or perhaps even a whole lifetime never seeing the brothers around us shed a tear. The side effect of this is we often end up forgetting how vulnerable — and human — they are.
But since Sunday I’ve seen men who I honestly didn’t even think had tear ducts, sobbing like little children, both in real life and on my television screens. And it’s been a bittersweet reminder about just how much “stuff” they hold in every day and teach themselves to push aside.
The last few days have revealed that Black men don’t feel any less than the rest of us, or hurt any less than we do either, they just have much less freedom to show it. So when I knew I was going to be writing this piece today, I asked many of them, flat out, “Why does THIS loss hurt so much?”
In summation they said they felt “blindsided” and “deeply wounded” to lose someone they identified with so intimately. One went so far as to explain that he felt society needed to “let us have this wake for Kobe. Let us play our pick-up games in his honor. Let us hug our children, kiss our wives and dap our friends. Let us cry together and surprise everyone who doesn’t think that we’re people.”
So out of respect, that’s exactly what I plan to do.
I’m going to let the Black men around me mourn, hold space for them to put down their armor and remind them it’s ok to weep for as long and as hard as they need to. Because the unexpected, but incredibly soul-stirring silver lining of this tragedy is that the men in my life are finally allowing themselves to feel and show vulnerability in ways I’m not sure even they knew they were capable of.
I’d like to think that Kobe — the older and wiser family man who planned to dedicate the rest of his life to uplifting his community, would be proud to know that this too gets to be part of his amazing and complicated legacy.
Olympic qualifying match preview and how to watch: USA vs Haiti
The United States takes on a very young Haiti WNT.
Olympic qualifying is an odd beast. The US women’s national team is the unquestioned juggernaut of Concacaf, and there are going to be some uncomfortably lopsided scores over the next few games. There’s room to both celebrate the excellence of the USWNT and remember that it’s not a level playing field across the region. With that in mind, here’s a preview and how to watch for the first US game of qualifying against Haiti.
The opponent
Haiti recently tied Texas A&M 1-1 in a friendly as part of their Olympic prep. They also tied Canada 1-1 in an earlier friendly through this nicely direct goal (with an assist from a literal defensive slip).
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There’s not as high a chance that they’ll be able to split US defenders like this, but you never know. Haiti has several players coming from D1F in France as well as a lot of youth players stepping up together from the U-20 level and together, they may be able to exploit a high line or a defensive lapse. Forward Nerilia Mondesir certainly taught the United States U-20s something about keeping an eye on clever balls over and runs behind.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they can hang with the senior US team for all 90, though. The oldest players on their roster were born in 1996, making their veteran players all of 23 and 24 years old. Their youngest player is goalkeeper Madelina Fleuriot at just 16.
Haiti roster
GOALKEEPERS (3): 1-Jonie Gabriel (As Tigresses), 12-Kerly Theus (Aigle Brillant), 18-Madelina Fleuriot (Exafoot)
DEFENDERS (7): 2-Soveline Beaubrun (As Tigresses), 3-Chelsea Surpris (Unattached), 4-Ruthny Mathurin (As Tigresses), 5-Tabita Joseph (As Tigresses), 13-Emeline Charles (Aigle Brillant), 15-Johane Laforte (Anacaona SC), 20-Kethna Louis (Le Havre AC, FRA)
MIDFIELDERS (5): 6-Melchie Dumonay (As Tigresses), 8-Dany Etienne (Fordham University, USA), 9-Sherly Jeudy (Anacaona SC), 14-Phiseline Michel (As Tigresses), 19-Angeline Gustave (As Tigresses)
FORWARDS (5): 7-Batcheba Louis (FF Issy Les Moulineaux, FRA), 10-Nerilia Mondesir (Montpellier HS, FRA), 11-Roseline Eloissaint (As Tigresses), 16-Abaina Louis (As Tigresses SC), 17-Mikerline Saint Felix (Montauban FC, FRA)
Time and TV schedule
USA vs Haiti
Tuesday, January 28
8:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM PT
FS2/TUDN
FLORINDO COMPLETES IMPROBABLE JOURNEY FROM HAITI TO WINTER YOUTH OLYMPICS
BORN IN HAITI, ADOPTED AT AGE THREE AND RAISED IN FRANCE, MACKENSON FLORINDO IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL ALPINE SKI RACER.
Now 17, Florindo has become Haiti’s first winter Olympian at a moment that coincides with the 10-year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated his Caribbean island homeland.
Haiti’s sole competitor at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games, Florindo finished 51st out of a 77-man field in Monday’s giant slalom at Les Diablerets and did not finish in Tuesday’s slalom.
But just being able to compete and represent Haiti in Olympic competition was all that mattered for him.
“This is a very good moment, incredible,” he said. “I made some friends. The performance was difficult but I am happy with that. This has been a very exciting and important time for me because I didn’t think I would be here.
“When I came here I knew the competition would be hard and I tried my best,” Florindo added. “I know what I have to do to improve and I will work on it.”
The skier’s adoptive mother, Valerie Florindo, was especially proud.
“He has done well,” she said. “This is very pleasing because I try to always support him as best I can.”
Florindo was born into a Haitian family in the village of Verrettes, about 60km north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, in 2002. Because his family could not afford to feed and raise him properly, his biological mother dropped the boy off at an orphanage in 2005 when he was three years old.
Six months later, he was sent to an orphanage in France. From there he was adopted by the Florindo family and raised in the mountain region near Grenoble.
Florindo has both Haitian and French citizenship, which he only received in June 2019. Hehas yet to return to Haiti since leaving as an orphan.
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“I know I was raised in France but I am Haitian and I am happy to be like that,” he said.
“I have a great family right now so I don’t feel bad really about the whole adoption.”
Florindo, who is coached by his brother Gregory, who is also adopted, works as a mechanic and dedicates most of his monthly salary towards his skiing career.
“My revenue goes mainly to me being in competition and to help buy anything I need for skiing,” he said. “I’m not rich and I get support from people and that is why I can be here right now.’’
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Ahead of his races, Florindo and the Haitian delegation took part in a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the massive earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010.
The quake killed more than 300,000 people, according to the Haitian government, and left many more homeless.
“It was a very sad situation,” Florindo said. “I wish it did not happen but now the country is a little bit better than how it was.”
The Haiti ski federation, which was also formed 10 years ago, said: “Years after the beginning of the incredible story, it will be the second breath of a fabulous human adventure for Haiti following the terrible earthquake of January 12, 2010.”
From Haiti to Southern Indiana: The journey of Floyd Central running back Wenkers Wright
Wenkers Wright only has vague childhood memories of growing up in a Haitian orphanage. But he does vividly remember playing soccer.
“I remember always playing soccer barefooted on the gravel,” he said. “Kicked the concrete by accident, go back and go for the ball.”
It was the genesis of Wright’s athletic career. He raced on the grounds of the orphanage in Petionville, Haiti. Wright said the one-floor building and its bordering field was about the size of a football field.
“Anybody that wanted to play, played,” he said. “We didn’t have anything to do after school. You couldn’t go outside the orphanage, so I played soccer and had some fun.”
About a decade later, now a junior at Floyd Central, the running back is roaming all over an actual football field and headlining the Highlanders’ offense. Wright has 1,001 rushing yards in four games, which according to coach James Bragg, ranked No. 1 in the state of Indiana as of Week 4. He has also scored 12 touchdowns.
Emerging from a backup last year to a starter this season, Wright has been on every opponent's scouting report. But what cannot be overlooked is the winding path of his upbringing.
Related: Wenkers Wright rushes for 350 yards in Floyd Central's win over New Albany
Betsy and Shawn Wright saw this picture of Wenkers and Gregory and decided to adopt them from Haiti (Photo: Courtesy of Shawn Wright)
Wright for years didn't know exactly know how many siblings he had. Not long after he was born, he and one of his older brothers, Gregory, were put into an orphanage. Wright knows he has a younger sister, and believes he has three more brothers besides Gregory, who also played football at Floyd Central.
Betsy Wright, Wenkers’ adopted mother, said that Wenkers has six older brothers and one younger sister. His family is originally from Cité Soleil, one of the poorest areas in the Western Hemisphere.
His memories of the orphanage consist of playing soccer, attending school and eating butter noodles with ketchup.
“That was the meal. I had that all the time,” Wright recalled. “It was just the certain way they made it because nowadays, I would not eat that. There is no way you can create it in America and have it taste good like it did back then because that does not sound appealing to me right now.”
On December 15, 2007, after going through two years and seven months of the adoption process, Betsy and her husband Shawn Wright drove a pickup truck to the orphanage to meet and bring Wenkers and Gregory to their newest home in Southern Indiana.
Wenkers Wright's Haitian family (Photo: Courtesy of Shawn Wright)
“Gregory just walked right up to me. Your mama heart just fills up and I was trying not to overwhelm him by grabbing him and squeezing him and crying,” Betsy said. “Wenkers held back just a little bit. That day is soaked in my mind.”
Also: Wenkers Wright and Marion Lukes couldn't be stopped in Week 4
Betsy and Shawn, wearing blue T-shirts with the words “Wright Family,” brought Domino’s Pizza for everyone at the orphanage, but Wenkers remembers not liking the pizza at all.
“Everybody likes pizza right? I did not like it,” he said. “I filled up on M&Ms that day.”
The first memory Wenkers has of America is of a group of people wearing the same shirts Betsy and Shawn were wearing, waiting for them at the airport with balloons.
“My parents walked me and my brother to the big group of people and everyone hugged us,” he said. “They gave us a stuffed animal. I didn’t know who these people were, but they come to be my whole family.”
The Wright family (Photo: Courtesy of Shawn Wright)
While the families welcomed the two siblings, the assimilation to American culture was not easy for Wenkers. He didn’t speak English fluently and repeated a year in kindergarten as a result. He didn’t like school because he had no way of communicating and just shrugged whenever his classmates approached him.
“And I had to stay there for six hours,” he said. “It was just me sitting there and watching foreigners do what they do.”
But after making his first friend — McKenna Robertson in Mrs. Smith’s kindergarten class—he grew comfortable with the language and began to make more friends. Eventually, he began playing soccer as he had in Haiti. It was the first time Wright played in an organized team activity with rules.
“No referees in Haiti,” Wright said. “I was just aggressive in soccer. In the orphanage, I played with what you could call the street rules.”
Shawn suggested his son try football in fourth grade and his talent was immediately evident.
“The very first time I ever touched a football in a real game, I had a 72-yard touchdown,” Wright said. “And after that my dad said I came off the field, took off my helmet and I had the biggest smile on my face.”
More preps: Jeffersonville hires Chris Moore as its new boys basketball coach
Wright grew up playing with the same group of friends from his days from Floyd Knobs Elementary to Highland Hills Middle School to now Floyd Central. The “insane” familiarity allowed him to adapt to the sport more easily, Wright said.
From the first career carry in a game to his latest one, a 60-yard touchdown in 50-14 win against New Albany last Friday, he’s reached the end zone countless times. But the one he can’t ever forget was his first varsity touchdown against Providence last year.
“I bust through the line and I was running,” Wright said. “I was thinking, 'this is going to be my first varsity touchdown.' Everybody was crazy. Stands were full. Oh my gosh, let’s keep doing this.”
He’s been steamrolling ever since. The junior, who incredibly rushed for 350 yards and five touchdowns last week, said his goal is to rush for 2,000 yards this year, and he is already halfway there in four games. Wright has to average 200 yards per game for the remaining regular season games to achieve that feat.
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Floyd Central's Wenkers Wright ran down the field for another score as he had 350 yards with five TDs as the Highlanders romped over 50-14 visiting New Albany Friday, Sept. 13, 2019. (Photo: Matt Stone/Courier Journal)
“He has the ability to break tackles,” Bragg said. “And the speed to break away to the end zone. No one in the coaches' office is surprised by what he's been able to do.”
Wright now enjoys eating pizza. In fact, he works at Rapid Fired Pizza and said his favorite topping is chicken and bacon with Alfredo sauce. He occasionally keeps in touch with his family in Haiti. And most importantly, he loves football — a sport he didn’t even know for more than half of his life, but is now thriving in it.
“I get reality checks now and then,” Wright said. “Look at where I am. This is great. It’s just a great feeling.”
Another Medal for Haiti Swimming at the 2019 CCCAN Games in Barbados!
The Haitian National Swim Team sent a 4 person delegation: Coach Alain Sergile (1996 Haitian Olympian) and athletes Laila Michel, Emilie Grand’Pierre and Alexandre Grand’Pierre to the CCCAN Games in Barbados June 28th - July 2nd.Our fourth athlete Davidson Vincent was set to swim the 50 & 100 fly and participate in the first ever Haitian Relay Team. Unfortunately, due to Visa issues, he was unable to travel from Haiti. We are working hard to resolve this issue and complete our Relay Team.
A Silver Medal was won by Emilie Grand’Pierre in the 50m breaststroke. Her swim of 35.26 set a new Haitian Record.New Haitian Records were set by Laila Michel in the 200m Butterfly (2:41.37).Alexandre Grand'Pierre in the 200m IM (2:19.00), 50m breaststroke (31.89) and the 100m breaststroke (1:07.57).and Emilie Grand'Pierre in the 200m IM (2:35.07) and 100m breaststroke (1:18.10).Congratulations to our Athletes for proudly representing our Flag! Thank you so much to CARIBBEAN APPAREL for providing the team uniforms and to individual contributors for Supporting Our Movement!
Help Us Qualify Our First Ever Haitian Relay Team to the 2020 Games!Contribute Here!ANSAM, NAP MACHE PRAN YO!Their next competition is World Championships on July 21-28 in South Korea.https://www.haitiroadtotokyo.com
Information provided by: Sons and Daughters of Haiti INC (SNDHAITI) - July 10, 2019
NEWSHaiti rallies to beat Costa Rica, finishes atop Group B in Gold Cup
HARRISON, N.J. — Haiti made history Monday night, topping a group for the first time in seven Concacaf Gold Cup appearances when it rallied to defeat Costa Rica in front of 17,554 fans at Red Bull Arena.
Les Grenadiers leapfrogged the Ticos on the final day of Group B and will face Canada in the quarterfinals Saturday in Houston. Costa Rica, which would have won the group with a draw, will meet Mexico, also at NRG Stadium.
“I think it’s a confidence boost,” New York Red Bulls winger Derrick Etienne Jr. said. “Costa Rica is a very good team, they showed that. We were able to get a win, a good team performance and we just showed that we’re willing to fight.”
The match was a thrilling display of attacking soccer from both sides, leading to a multitude of chances on either end of the stadium. Costa Rica jumped ahead in the 13th minute courtesy of an own goal by Haitian defender Djimy Bend Alexis.
But the 21-year-old who plays for Capoise in the Haitian league went from unlucky goat to hero late in the second half when he scored what proved to be the winner.
“I’m pretty sure this is one of those days he’ll remember forever,” Haiti coach Marc Collat said through a translator.
Disappointed in the effort in the opening 45 minutes, Haiti regrouped in the locker room at halftime and the second half belonged to them. Duckens Nazon leveled from the penalty spot in the 56th minute after he was knocked over in the top-right edge of the box by Chicago Fire defender Francisco Calvo.
With Costa Rican goalkeeper Leonel Moreira diving the other way, Nazon buried his attempt in the opposite corner.
Haiti continued to probe for the winner as their fans drowned out the Ticos support. Les Grenadiers constant pressure in the second half finally paid off in the 81st minute. Etienne, who had 40-50 family members in attendance, played to Alex Christian.
The defender sent a low ball across the six-yard box where New York City FC fullback Ronald Matarrita tried to stop it. But the ball deflected off his foot and into the path of Alexis, who blasted the ball under the crossbar.
“There were obviously two different halves,” Collat said. “The first half was more of a half for Costa Rica, they were a bit more involved and the second half belonged to Haiti.”
Now Haiti goes from celebrating a first-ever Gold Cup win over Costa Rica to preparing to meet a Canadian team that also has high aspirations in the competition. Canada finished second in Group A behind Mexico.
“Canada is a very good team. We’re going to celebrate tonight, but tomorrow it’s back to preparation and back to grinding,” Etienne said. “We’re going to watch some film, see what their weakness is and what we can attack and see what their strengths are and make sure we’re able to stop that. I think it’s going to be a very good matchup and we’re looking forward to it.”
Costa Rica need to regroup to take on a Mexican team that convincingly won Group A with three wins. The Ticos have never beaten El Tri in seven all-time Gold Cup meetings, losing six times.
“The confidence is still there,” FC Cincinnati defender Kendall Waston said. “Disappointment happens and it’s the way we respond from it is what matters. This is going to help us a lot to wake up.”
Midfielder Bicou Bissainthe Included in Haiti’s 2019 Gold Cup Roster
FRISCO – North Texas Soccer Club midfielder Bicou Bissainthe has been called up to represent Haiti in the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup.
Bissainthe 20, has appeared in every USL League One match for North Texas SC this season, making six substitute appearances and three starts. Bissainthe has yet to make his senior debut for Haiti but played four games for Haiti’s U-20 side in the 2018 Concacaf U-20 Championship where he scored three goals.
Haiti is in Group B for this year’s edition of the Gold Cup and will play matches against Bermuda (June 16), Nicaragua (June 20) and Costa Rica (June 24). Bissainthe will have a chance to play in his home stadium as Haiti’s second group stage match will be played in Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas against Nicaragua.
Haitian American Swimmer Sets Sights on Tokyo Olympics
WASHINGTON / MIAMI — When Naomy Grand'Pierre was a child, three of her mother's cousins drowned in an accident in Haiti. The event sparked such fear in Grand'Pierre's mother that she made sure her own children would never meet a similar fate. So, she enrolled them in swimming lessons, which changed their lives.
"Swimming lessons led to training, then competitions, and that's how I learned about the Olympic Games and decided I wanted to represent Haiti in this sport," she said.
Grand'Pierre, 22, is Haiti's first female Olympic swimmer. She represented the country at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where she competed in the 50-meter freestyle event. She finished 56th with a time of 27.46 seconds, not fast enough to advance to the semifinals. Now, the Montreal, Canada-born Haitian American who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, is training to race in Tokyo, Japan, in 2020.
"The most valuable lesson (I learned from the 2016 Olympics) is that dreams do come true," Grand'Pierre said in a 2017 interview with her sweat, a digital platform dedicated to women's health and fitness.
"It's super cliché, but when I was 10 years old, I really wanted to go to the Olympics. I would tell everybody and would always get negative feedback. People would say, 'You know how hard it is to do that? You're not fast enough.' So, I learned very early on, dreams are super fragile and you only share it with people who are there to encourage you and share that journey with you."
The swimmer, wearing a white jacket adorned with Haiti emblems, was all smiles as she sat down for a conversation with VOA Creole at the Caribbean Marketplace in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.
"I train every day," she said. "It takes a lot of dedication, mental strength, but I'm doing everything I can to represent Haiti in the best possible way."
Grand'Pierre currently lives and trains in Atlanta. Her workout routine is a mix of swimming, running, weights and core exercises six days a week.
Haiti's Rio team was the country's largest since 1976 and included 10 athletes (seven men, three women). But they did not medal. In fact, the country has not won an Olympic medal since 1928, when Silvio Cator won silver in the long jump competition and became a national hero.
Budgetary constraints also pose a problem. VOA Creole was unable to get specifics on this year's budget from Haiti's Olympic Committee. But the budget for 2016 was a paltry 4.5 million gourdes (about $45,000), according to a report published in Haiti Libre newspaper.
Some members of the Haitian diaspora in the United States are trying to help. Haitian Ballers, a nonprofit group launched by Haitian American basketball coach Yves Jean, traveled to Haiti with friends in May to announce an initiative to refurbish swimming pools where local athletes can train.
"We're thinking about possibly hotel pools, doing a partnership at hotel pools. Wherever we can find a pool, we would love to get in, but we really need sponsors at this point," said Stacey Blitch, an American sports and fitness specialist who accompanied Haitian Ballers to Port-au-Prince.
Grand'Pierre participated in one of the group's events in Port-au-Prince at a swimming pool at Adventist University of Haiti.
Although the odds seem to be against her, Grand'Pierre remains positive and undeterred.
"I feel very supported by the Haitian community. They are very proud of me, and I get a lot of positive feedback," she said.
Grand'Pierre says the Olympic swim team has launched an online fundraising campaign on HaitiRoadToTokyo.com. Their goal is $150,000. To get the word out, the star swimmer posed for photos, shook hands and gave interviews in Little Haiti. Her next meet and greet with the Haitian community is set for June 13 in Chicago.
High-school-basketball-coach-threatens-send-player-home-Haiti-profane-rant
'I'm the dirtiest, baddest motherf***er on this earth': High school basketball coach calls a player 'r*****ed' and threatens to send him back to his home in Haiti in a profane rant
- Mike Woodbury – the owner of Port Saint Lucie's Nation Christian Academy, where he coaches boys basketball – was recorded threatening the player
- During the recording, Woodbury can be heard saying that he 'control[s] transcripts,' seemingly implying he could control the player's GPA
- When the player received his transcripts, he had a 1.4 grade-point average (GPA). He asserts that Woodbury changed his grades to harm his future
- Woodbury denied the accusation and attributed the lower numbers to an 'error'
- The rant seems to be in response to the player's decision to transfer schools
- In the statement, Woodbury claims the foreign student actually lived with him
- The player and a teammate claim they found a damaging conversation between Woodbury and a woman, which spurred him to ask for a request to transfer
- Players coached by Woodbury in Maine claimed he verbally abused them
A basketball coach who owns a private academy in Florida has admitted to a profanity-laced tirade in which he called a player 'r*****ed' while threatening to send him back to his home country of Haiti after the student told him he was transferring to another school.After a recording of the profane tirade was released on YouTube, Mike Woodbury – the owner of Port Saint Lucie's Nation Christian Academy – admitted to the rant in a school statement.
Woodbury said the full conversation lasted 20 minutes. The YouTube clip is about three minutes long, but contains a litany of derogatory terms aimed at the player, who was seemingly telling the coach he intended to transfer.
In speaking with Stadium, the player said he left Nation Christian Academy two days after the
'Just get out of my face,' Woodbury said at the start of the clip. 'Take your broke asses – I'll say it again – your broke asses back to the garage. I don't want to hear from you. The bottom line … get the f*** out. Just walk the f*** out. I don't give a shit. I control transcripts. I control where you go next. It could be back to Haiti, mother****er. That's how easy it is for me.'
According to Stadium, that player and a teammate claim they found a damaging conversation between Woodbury and a woman, which spurred the player to ask Nation Christian's head of school for a release and transfer.
When the player, who is reportedly being recruited by McNeese State, Louisiana Tech and other mid-majors, received his transcripts, he had a 1.4 grade-point average (GPA). He asserts that Woodbury changed his grades, but Woodbury denied the accusation and attributed the lower numbers to an 'error in calculation.'
During the recording, Woodbury can be heard saying that he 'control[s] transcripts,' seemingly implying he could control the player's GPA.
Woodbury alleged to Stadium that the player had attempted to extort school leadership.
The player, who was in his second season at the school after moving over from Haiti at 15, allegedly skipped school, which, as Woodbury told Stadium, was the final straw.
The player denied many of the specific charges made against him by Woodbury to Stadium, and insists he was not trying to extort anyone.
Rather, the player claimed, he was worried the school would be shut down and he wanted to transfer before that happened.
He claims Woodbury's efforts to misrepresent his GPA negatively impacted his chances to transfer: 'I’ve already had two schools close down on me. I was afraid this one would be shut down also, so I wanted to get out of there.'
Multiple players coached by Woodbury in Maine told Stadium they witnessed verbal abuse from him. The private school league in which Nation Academy was a member of, Sunshine Independent Athletic Association, told Stadium it parted ways with the institution.
Woodbury released a statement Wednesday: 'First, I want to apologize for the vulgar language that was used in the video that has been circulating around. I have had this particular student for a year. He is like family and sometimes family arguments get blown out of proportion.
'I am in no way justifying the language, however, there are two sides to every story. This conversation did not take place at school, I do not coach the team. Without indicting the child too much, there were multiple conduct issues while this student was attending school and living in my home with my wife and son. One issue was criminal in nature, that was not pursed as the intentions are not to cause lifelong damage to this student.
'Also, this particular student was asked to leave the school and we arranged for it to be done so amicably. The timeline on this "conversation" is deceiving as this was on 10/17/2018 with 4 other students and another coach present. This conversation was in regards to the several conduct issues and lasted 35 minutes, the particular clip was dubbed to 3 minutes. I am readily available for comment.'
The rant went viral after former Kentucky Wildcats star and journeyman NBA guard Rex Chapman posted the YouTube link on Twitter.
'Sickening,' Chapman wrote. 'Please pay attention to the people "coaching" your kids. This is Nation Christian Academy Head Basketball Coach Mike Woodbury reacting to a player transferring. He was recorded. This is not coaching. Or teaching...'
By Alex Raskin Sports News Editor For Dailymail.com and Associated Press | October 31, 2018See full video below - Warning: Graphic content
New York Knicks: Former Columbia Forward Jeff Coby To Sign
The New York Knicks will sign Jeff Coby, a former Columbia forward, according to Nicola Lupo of Sportando.
The New York Knicks appeared to complete their training camp roster for training camp, with the signing of Tyrius Walker on an Exhibit 10 deal. This brought the group to 20 players, but could there be another change on the way?
According to Nicola Lupo of Sportando, the Knicks will sign Jeff Coby, a former forward at Columbia. ESPN’s Ian Begley added how Coby worked out for the team recently and impressed in informal sessions and garnered the coaching staff’s attention.
Coby played for the Haitian National Team and spent the past year in Spain, and while at Columbia, he averaged 5.2 points and 3.9 rebounds on 43 percent shooting from 2013-17.
No indication on what kind of deal Cody signed, but another Exhibit 10 deal makes sense so he can join the Westchester Knicks for the 2018-19 season.Coby’s presence makes him the 21st player on the training camp roster, and teams can only carry 20 into the season. That puts someone onThat puts someone on the outside looking in.The obvious name is Joakim Noah, with reports of his impending departure before training camp. He and the Knicks have battled through a tumultuous relationship for the past two years, since the former president of basketball operations, Phil Jackson, gave the veteran center a four-year, $72 million deal in 2016.A waive-and-stretch scenario is the most likely way to remove Noah from the roster. That’s unless a team steps up with trade interest.If not Noah, the Knicks have players on partially guaranteed deals, including Kadeem Allen and Noah Vonleh, but it would be a surprise to see either be cut as this saga reaches its conclusion.With Coby around, look for the Knicks and Noah to end this two-year-long adventure and open a roster spot for camp. It still leaves decisions before the start of the season, as the squad must trim down to 17 (15 without the way-way players).
by: Rob Wolkenbrod for dailyknicks.com | September 21, 2018
Naomi Osaka is reportedly set to sign Adidas' biggest deal with a female athlete — and it could make her one of the highest-paid women in sports
- Naomi Osaka may be about to sign the biggest deal Adidas has agreed to with a female athlete.
- A deal worth $8.5 million annually could be announced Thursday, according to The Times.
- The new agreement would come hot on the heels of Osaka's straight-sets victory over Serena Williams, a match known for Williams' sparring with a chair umpire.
- Osaka is now seen as "a branding sensation," as the New York Post put it.
Naomi Osaka is reportedly set to sign the biggest deal Adidas has ever agreed to with a female athlete.
Osaka, a 20-year-old tennis player, just won the US Open — her first Grand Slam title. She defeated the 23-time major winner Serena Williams in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, on Saturday at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, collecting a $3.8 million paycheck.
But her new deal with Adidas could dwarf her earnings from tennis, The Times reports.
Osaka is reportedly on a "six figure" salary with Adidas that will expire this year.
The Times says a contract worth an estimated $8.5 million a year will be announced Thursday. This would be Adidas' biggest deal with a female athlete, according to Yahoo, which also says it would see the Japanese star rocket up Forbes' list of the highest-paid women in sports.
With the new endorsement deal, Osaka could become the second-highest-paid woman this year, above her fellow tennis player Caroline Wozniacki but one rung below Williams.
Osaka's newfound fame
Osaka has been thrust into the global spotlight because of the nature of her victory over Williams, who received three code violations during the US Open final match. The first violation was for coaching, which Williams argued against. "I don't cheat to win — I'd rather lose," she said. Her coach later acknowledged giving hand signals, though it was unclear whether Williams saw them. She was later given a violation for smashing her racket, costing her a point. Her third violation, for calling the umpire Carlos Ramos a "thief," cost her a game.
Williams has since been lampooned by an Australian newspaper cartoonist, bringing even more notoriety to the match.
The massive Adidas renewal could be a reflection of Osaka's increased standing in the sport and around the world, Yahoo reports.
The Adidas deal could be a sign of things to come for Osaka, as the New York Post believes another endorsement, potentially with a car manufacturer, could also be on the horizon. The publication says Osaka is likely to become "a branding sensation."By: Alan Dawson | Business Insider | September 12, 2018
US Open 2018: Serena Williams falls to Naomi Osaka in controversial final marred by penalty
The Japanese number one overcame any nerves she had to come through to win her first major title.The Queen vs The Debutant. The Veteran vs The Rising Star. Twenty-Three vs Zero. Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka took center stage for the women's final at the US Open and either way, history was going to be made.Serena was looking to tie Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles while Osaka was looking to become the first Japanese player to win a major title and the seventh player and women born in the 90s to win a major title.It was a final marred with a controversy that involved Serena, chair umpire Carlos Ramos, Tournament Referee Brian Earley, but even given one game, Naomi Osaka earned every bit of her first Grand Slam title.Osaka Produces Dominant Opening SetJust like in her last two matches against Karolina Pliskova and Anastasija Sevastova, Serena fell quickly behind in her opening service game but recovered to hold to open the match. Like Serena, Osaka fell behind 0-30 before she fought her way back to hold.Osaka stayed down on her backhand return to force an error out of the 17 seed to set up the match's first break point. A wild double-fault from Serena handed the first break of the match to the 20-year-old. Taking the ball early and finding the short angles seemed to be working for the 20th seed, consolidating her break comfortably.Serena looked to be the shaky one, handing a double break to Osaka after another mediocre game in addition to some tremendous defense from the Japanese number one. The American had her first two break point chances, but Osaka continued her run of break points saved from the end of her match against Aryna Sabalenka to her semifinal match with Madison Keys and carried it through here to get out to a 5-1 lead.Down 0-30 trying to stay in the set, Serena clawed her way back for 2-5 to force Osaka to serve for the opening set. The set ended just how Osaka wanted, a comfortable hold of serve to take the opening set 6-2.Second SetSerena is one of the best, if not the best, at resetting when behind to get on the board to start the opening set. Serena was hit with a coaching violation after Patrick Mouratoglou was giving a "thumbs up" signal to Serena which chair umpire Carlos Ramos thought was a sign.Serena then responded that she doesn't get coaching and that she would "rather lose than cheat to win". Serena brought out the feel her next service game, bringing Osaka into the net more, even hitting a drop shot winner.The 30-all point in the fourth game may have been a turning point with Osaka missing an open backhand down the line with Serena going the opposite direction. How did she respond though? Winning the longest rally of the match by moving Serena all over the court and capping off the point with a forehand winner down the line.Osaka has been out of this world when put under pressure over the last three-and-a-half sets dating back to the quarterfinals, but Serena finally cracked her to go up a break at 3-1. Despite serving better in this set, Serena's two double-faults cost her as she broke back and smashed her racquet.The smashed racquet in addition to the coaching warning put Serena down 15-0 in the following game as the American was fuming at the thought she was cheating. Osaka held at love and broke with another passing shot to go up 4-3."You are attacking my character and you owe me an apology. You are a liar. You will never umpire on a court of mine as long as you live. Give me my apology. You stole a point from me and you’re a thief too" is what Serena said to chair umpire Carlos Ramos who then gave her a game penalty for verbal abuse after a coaching warning and then racquet abuse.Much confusion was amongst everyone in Arthur Ashe as Serena was in near tears as she called out tournament referee Brian Earley in his last year here. Serena held comfortably at 3-5 down, but as she was when she needed to be, Osaka had ice in her veins when the pressure was thrown upon her to win her first Grand Slam title.It was a final marred with a controversy that involved Serena, chair umpire Carlos Ramos, Tournament Referee Brian Earley, but even given one game, Naomi Osaka earned every bit of her first Grand Slam title.By: Noel John Alberto for Vavel.com | September 8, 2018
US Open 2018: Naomi Osaka, the new face of tennis, gears up for another battle against 'biggest idol' Serena Williams
Today, for the first time in the history of women’s tennis, a Japanese player made the finals of a Grand Slam. That player is Naomi Osaka, currently ranked No 19 on the WTA Tour and poised for a top 10 breakthrough. Now, she faces her “biggest idol” — one she shares with millions — Serena Williams, who, in the year after giving birth to her daughter, has now already made two Grand Slam finals.Osaka was born in Osaka in October of 1997, over two years after her idol and now rival at the US Open, went professional. With the option to sign with the United States Tennis Association, Osaka’s father chose to sign her to where he said she found significantly more support: The Japanese Tennis Federation, which is incidentally the earliest-founded tennis federation in Asia. Osaka herself has lived in the United States since she was three years old.
Naomi Osaka became the first Japanese women's player to reach a Grand Slam final. AP
In so many ways, their courses through the tennis court have been similar and yet so different. Born to a Japanese mother and a Haitian-American father, Naomi Osaka has had to face racial prejudice and assumptions through her relatively young career so far. In a 2016 interview, Osaka said Japanese locals were often left surprised when they saw her. “When I go to Japan, people are confused. From my name, they don’t expect to see a black girl," she revealed.It goes without saying that the Williams sisters have had a transformational effect on tennis but this effect is so much more significant for athletes of color. Venus and Serena have been the biggest female athletes of colour since Althea Gibson, who was the first person of colour in the history of tennis to win a Grand Slam — at the 1956 French Open. In a sport that has been pushing to become more inclusive, the WTA’s top 20 features Osaka herself, her semi-final competitor Madison Keys, and defending US Open champion Sloane Stephens. Each of the three — not to mention a number in the top 20 — cite Serena Williams as the biggest, most significant inspiration and for many, the reason they began playing tennis. It is truly staggering just how much one significant idol can change the face of a sport, and Serena Williams has been that idol.This year, Osaka played Williams at the Miami Open and trounced her in straight sets. But a Grand Slam is a different beast, and Serena, with 23 (as of now) has more Grand Slam titles than the years Naomi Osaka has been on earth. That win might have been followed up by a drubbing to Elina Svitolina, but for Osaka, it followed her first Premier title at Indian Wells, where she defeated former No 1 Maria Sharapova in the first round, and then handed World No 1 Simona Halep a bagel in the semi-finals before taking home the trophy as the tournament’s first unseeded champion in over a decade. That win came 13 years after a certain Belgian player named Kim Clijsters achieved the feat in 2005.2018 has been Osaka’s best year so far, but the tall ace showed promise early on. At the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford in July 2014 — less than a year after she went pro, the then 16-year-old beat 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur with serves that came in at just under 200km/h, giving plenty of people plenty of reasons to sit up and take notice. She also saved match point against the experienced former World No 4 as much as a mental game as it is physical.Both women are tall. Serena at 5’ 9” and Osaka at a staggering 5'11", and it is a fact that other than Serena Williams, Osaka has one of the most powerful serves on the current women’s tour. Big forehands, aggressive baseline play. Sound familiar? That might be because Serena is one of Osaka’s biggest idols. “I’ve always wanted to play her.”Indeed, both their styles are very reminiscent of one another and in a few ways, different. Both play aggressively from the baseline, but while Osaka focuses on a powerful forehand, Serena has a more all-round game which of course, also comes from experience. Osaka’s serves have speed but then, so always have those of Serena, who has the added advantage of having one of the most powerful serves in the history of tennis. Those are some pretty big shoes to fill and currently, Serena is still very much in them. While Osaka has a more offensive style of play, Serena has always managed both the offensive and defensive game with aplomb. Williams is also known for her consistent aces, especially at critical times — something she has been doing even more than usual in recent years — while Osaka’s serves are consistent and speedy, her ace delivery is not frequent.Last year, Osaka made perhaps the biggest stride forward in her career when she enlisted Sascha Bajin to be her coach. The Serbian-born German player was on the ITF circuit in 2007 when he received a call-up to be the hitting partner of a professional tennis player — Serena Williams. From a hitting partner, Bajin has evolved over the years into more of a coach, and worked with former No 1s Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki, with whom he parted ways only last year, before taking Osaka under his wing.Bajin himself highlights perhaps the biggest difference between the two players. Serena Williams is known to be one of the most outgoing players on the tour, and her drive spills over from her professional life into the personal, and vice versa. On the other hand, Osaka is more reserved, and although she can fire big shots that are reminiscent of Serena, she does not have the on-court aggression that has become a trademark of Williams’ game.Similarities and differences in game aside, Osaka has established herself quickly as one of the funniest characters off the court even if she is a bit shy. Known for her quick, dry humour, Osaka said the Serena win at Indian Wells was her ‘second-favourite’ win, second to her victory over her sister Mari. When Osaka met her other idolVenus Williams at the WTA Finals in 2016, she stood around the former No 1 in awe, and in typical Naomi Osaka fashion, said at the time she thought she was “kind of creeping her out.” Her social media is further evidence to her dry brand of humour:
In the middle of telling a joke 😫 pic.twitter.com/85ZkO7RoQ5
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@Naomi_Osaka_) March 17, 2018
Osaka’s Indian Wells acceptance speech was one for the ages. Prefacing it by warning the crowd it might be the “worst acceptance speech ever”, she thanked rival Daria Kasatkina and her team, then her own team for “putting up with me”, and the “awesome ball kids.” Stumbling over her own words, she consistently had the crowd in stitches.On Serena Williams: “I was really impressed by her and wanted to play like her when I was little. Well, I hope I’m starting to play like her now,” Osaka said at the start of her professional career. Once described by Serena as “talented and dangerous”, Naomi Osaka is both of those things and a package of talent, honesty and hilarity all rolled into one.In the years since her debut, Osaka has picked up more conversational Japanese, and says she can “understand almost everything”, which has endeared her significantly to what is now a loyal Japanese fan base.Osaka is nothing if not open, and a refreshing change from the manicured, curated speeches and public images so many athletes have today. Youthful but not necessarily exuberant, Naomi Osaka is the new face of tennis: a talent for her generation, a receiver of a baton that has not yet been passed and this weekend, a young tennis star who faces her biggest idol across the net once again.
Naomi Osaka took these photos with her idol Serena Williams at the Bank of the West Classic in 2014. Now they will play for the 2018 US Open Title on Saturday. 😀🎾(photos WTA, Bank of the West Classic FB) pic.twitter.com/JpEw0X4W0K— LaWanda (@lawanda50) September 7, 2018
By: Anuradha Santhanam for firstpost.com | September 7, 2018
Naomi Osaka Reaches US Open Semifinals
NEW YORK -- Naomi Osaka charged into the first Grand Slam semifinal by a Japanese woman in 22 years, routing Lesia Tsurenko 6-1, 6-1 on Wednesday in the US Open quarterfinals.The No. 20 seed continued what's been a largely dominant run through the draw by winning in just 57 minutes, the third time in her five matches she didn't even have to play an hour.She raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set and then 4-0 in the second against the shaky Tsurenko, who finished with more unforced errors than points in her first major quarterfinal.Osaka will face either 14th-seeded Madison Keys or No. 30 Carla Suarez Navarro in the first major semifinal appearance for a Japanese woman since Kimiko Date reached the final four at Wimbledon in 1996.Osaka, who was born in Japan but moved to the U.S. at age 3, was followed on Arthur Ashe Stadium by Kei Nishikori facing Marin Cilic in a men's quarterfinal.Together, Osaka and Nishikori were the first Japanese woman and man to make the quarterfinals of the same Grand Slam since Date and Shuzo Matsuoka at Wimbledon in 1995.The 20-year-old said she was nervous, claiming to be "freaking out inside" -- though it certainly never showed."Just like my entire body was shaking, so I'm really glad I was able to play well today," she said.She won 59 points to just 28 for the unseeded Ukrainian, who knocked off No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.But after laboring through the heat in her previous match, Tsurenko said she was sick Wednesday, waking up with a sore throat and not breathing well."Unfortunately during this tournament I had many issues with my health, and today was not my day obviously. I was not feeling well," she said.Osaka had consecutive 50-minute matches earlier in the tournament, including a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the third round.She was finally tested in the round of 16, edging past No. 26 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in a little more than 2 hours, but she was back in complete control against Tsurenko, winning 20 of 22 points (91 percent) on her first serve.Tsurenko labored in the heat during her fourth-round victory over Marketa Vondrousova, having her temperature and blood checked during a medical timeout in the first set and nearly quitting when she trailed early in the second. She recovered to win in three sets, with her opponent accusing her of acting after the match.It was another hot afternoon Wednesday, with temperatures in the high 80s but feeling some 10 degrees hotter with the humidity.Tsurenko didn't appear bothered by the conditions, but whether it was her health or just first-time jitters, she was off from the minute she stepped onto Arthur Ashe Stadium.She pushed some balls a few feet past the baseline, often failing to make Osaka do anything special to win a point and finishing with 31 unforced errors."I hate matches like this," Tsurenko said. "I didn't want to show this kind of game in front of this big crowd, but unfortunately I'm just not able to play now."By: Associated Press via ESPN.com| September 5, 2018
Perfect Germany progress, Haiti go out fighting
[embed]https://youtu.be/uLZP2INGRoI[/embed]Germany finished the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup group stage with a perfect record after a 3-2 victory against Haiti at Vannes’s Stade de la Rabine. Laura Freigang opened the scoring from close range, before Kristin Kogel doubled the lead shortly after the break.Klara Buhl made it three for Germany on the hour-mark, while Haiti captain Nerilia Mondesir netted a second-half brace to put pressure on the Germans. After making it three wins from three, Maren Meinert’s team will now face Japan - who finished second in Group C - in France 2018’s quarter-finals.Germany applied early pressure with Dina Orschmann seeing an effort go narrowly wide after just two minutes. They bagged the opener on 18 minutes when defender Sarai Linder embarked on a valiant run, charging towards the byline before sending a low ball into the centre of the area for Freigang to tap home.Orschmann had the chance to make it 2-0 shortly after the half-hour mark, but her effort was aimed straight at shot-stopper Kerly Theus. Spirited Haiti were not content with sitting back, but while they looked threatening moving down the flanks, they were unable to convert their chances. They went close shortly before the break, though, with Melchie Dumonay’s free-kick being tipped wide by goalkeeper Janina Leitzig.After a strong end to the first half, Haiti found themselves two goals down shortly after the break when Buhl found Kogel inside the area, the midfielder getting the better of Theus to find the bottom corner. Germany then made it three on the hour-mark when substitute Giulia Gwinn played in a delightful low ball to Buhl, who found the net with a strong left-footed strike.Three goals down, Haiti looked to battle back. They grabbed their first on 63 minutes when skipper and star performer Mondesir pounced on a loose ball after a corner to tap in from close range. Mondesir then netted her second of the game ten minutes later, rifling the ball into the net from the centre of the box, to put pressure on the Germans.The Europeans, however, held on to preserve their lead against the spirited Haitians, finishing the group stage with a 100 per cent record.
“Dare To Shine” Player of the Match: Nerilia Mondesir (HAI)
Stevens Cadet and the International Haitian Lacrosse Team
[video ]Stevens Cadet, from Elmont, New York shares with News12 what playing for the International Haitian Lacrosse Team means to him.A GoFundMe Page dedicated to collecting donations to help fund their journey to The World Championships in Netanya, Israel in July 2018. Much support is needed for food,lodging,transportation and equipment. Please help these young athletes by donating to their cause at https://www.gofundme.com/haiti-lacrossefaith-foundation
