Naomi Osaka on Tokyo Olympics 2020 – “Winning Gold Would Be The Biggest Thing”

The first World Number one from the Asian continent, Naomi Osaka aims to triumph in front of her home crowd at Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Japanese sensation is setting her sight for clinching a medal in the quadrennial event of sports.

“I do think about winning gold and it would mean a lot if I was able to achieve that and win a gold medal because you dream of such moments,” Osaka said. “When you are a kid you don’t dream of silver or bronze. Even though winning silver or bronze is an incredible achievement, every athlete wants gold and it has always been something that I have imagined.”

The sport of tennis was readmitted in the Olympics in the year 1988 and since then there has been one Japanese player claiming a medal. The Japanese tennis player, Kei Nishikori defeated Rafael Nadal in the bronze medal match in 2016, and he became the first Japanese player to achieve an Olympic medal since 1920. During 2016 Olympics Japan bagged 41 medals and finished sixth on the medal tally table. 

“Winning gold would be the biggest thing I would have achieved in my career, although in some ways that is simply because of timing,” Osaka mentioned. “I contest Grand Slams every year but an Olympic Games is only once every four years so there are not many opportunities to become an Olympic champion. Everyone who competes at the Olympics wants to be an Olympic champion, so that would be my aim.”

The 21-year-old tennis sensation’s US Open 2018 victory over Serena Williams created ripples in Japan and they regard it to be a remarkable sporting achievement in the Heisei era. Also, according to ESPN, Osaka and Williams’ final had 3.1 million viewership and Djokovic and Del Potro’s final match received 2.01 million viewers.

Besides her triumph at Flushing Meadows, Osaka’s Australian Open 2019 final match against Petra Kvitova broke viewership records, as more than 20 million people witnessed the intense final match between the WTA women in Melbourne

The tennis events for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 will be held at Ariake Tennis Park, which is the venue for the WTA event, Pan Pacific Open. The Olympics with start on July 24th, 2020 and the tennis events will get underway on July 25th, 2020.