There is no denying that Naomi Osaka has established herself as one of the big guns on the women’s tour. While showcasing a wide array of shots on the court, the Japanese tennis superstar has added four singles Grand Slam titles to her bag. However, the former world No. 1  player’s path to the top echelons of the sport was not without challenges.

A renowned journalist recently brought to light how Osaka was in the face of a ‘real financial peril’ during her debut on the tour. However, a $10,000 prize purse later proved crucial for the WTA player as she overcame the adversities alongside her family.

Naomi Osaka’s ‘real financial peril’ transformed her into a winning machine

In the latest episode of the Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast show, the renowned journalist Ben Rothenberg revealed Naomi Osaka and her family faced eviction before her debut on the tour. Back in 2014, the Japanese tennis player’s family received an eviction notice for their apartment because they couldn’t pay for it.

Reminiscing about the same, Rothenberg said, “I found documents for when they got evicted from their apartment, you know, around 2014. And seeing the timing of that, right before Naomi made her tour debut and be able to connect those dots, it was like less than a month, I believe, roughly a month rather, from when they got eviction notice from their apartment they just couldn’t, weren’t paying for and to win, she made her tour debut in Stanford and beat Samantha Stosur.”

The tennis journalist also suggested how Osaka’s ‘real financial peril’ transformed her into a big gun as she later outclassed the former US Open champion Samantha Stosur in her debut match. In doing so, the WTA player also bagged a $10,000 prize purse, which was hugely crucial to her family during the adverse phase.

Rothenberg said, “And seeing that it’s like real financial peril, brought out this new level, because not only was she ranked 400 something in the world at this point. But that that emergency that urgency she had, brought up something really superhuman in her and led her to beat Samantha Stosur, who was a recent US Open champion at that point at a WTA match and won $10,000 in prize money, which was hugely crucial to her family and also got the interest of sponsors and agents and stuff like that. I mean, it was a big, big deal.”

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What do you think of the Japanese tennis superstar’s stellar debut victory amidst her off-court challenges? Let us know in the comments section.

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