Naomi Osaka reveals why she identifies with the popular Japanese anime Naruto

Former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka says she identifies with the character of Naruto, a very popular anime that she watched for much of her childhood.

Noami Osaka on why she identifies with the character of Naruto

In an interview to Highsnobiety. the 22 year old Osaka says, “Just watching as an outsider and seeing all the work that he put in, was really cool when I was younger. He was the outcast, and then he proved himself to people, and we started believing in him. That stubbornness is something maybe I have a little bit."

According to Wikipedia, Naruto is a Japanese manga series, which tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village.

Thank you @highsnobiety for this fun cover 🥰❤️ was so cool to shoot and if anyone wants to check out the story we actually talked about some pretty serious tennis stuff lol. pic.twitter.com/mO2jwLmWgx

— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) August 30, 2020

During the interview, Osaka also speaks about how she used the lockdown to try and work on improving her game, even as she found it difficult to be motivated without an exact return date. 

“I guess I just pick something I want to get better at. In tennis, it’s a slice. I’m not that great at it. Normally, we tennis players train for tournaments, so it’s been really weird to not have a specific tournament in mind and just kind of play it by ear. And sometimes you feel a bit unmotivated, because you’re not really sure when things are going to pick back up.”

The 22 year old Osaka is the current World No. 10 and a two-time Grand Slam winner. She won the US Open in 2018 and is seeded No. 3 at this year's US Open which gets underway on Monday in New York.

Osaka had pulled out of the final of the Western & Southern Open event on Saturday due to a a hamstring injury. This came after a stressful few days at the tournament, during which she decided she would not play her semi-final as scheduled on Thursday to protest the shooting of a black man in Wisconsin a few days ago. That led to the tournament taking a one-day pause and although she did win her semi-final on Friday, she injured her hamstring during that match which led her to give a walkover to Victoria Azarenka in the final.

Naomi Osaka is scheduled to play her first round match on Monday evening at the US Open.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/32JOqzw