2024 BET Awards: Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka Secure Spots in a Basketball Dominated List

Despite not finding luck in Rome’s clay court, two US Open champions, Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka bagged their spots in one of the famous events of the year. Hosted by the Black Entertainment Television network, Gauff, and Osaka are all set to compete for an exclusive recognition. However, this time their competitors are not from tennis but from basketball, a dominant sport in the United States. As Gauff and Osaka proceed to compete for another prize, their nominations showcase their contributions to keeping tennis as a priority sport for America.

According to Deadline, Black Entertainment Television Network is gearing up to host their exclusive BET Awards event this year. As they released the name of the Sportswoman of the Year Award nominations, tennis fans have gone crazy spotting Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka’s list. Along with the American and the Japanese WTA stars, the list featured A’ja Wilson. Wilson plays for the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA. She was awarded the NCAA Basketball Tournament Most Outstanding Player Award in 2017 and won the Olympic gold medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Then there is Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese. This nomination list also featured LSU Tigers’ Flau’jae Johnson and USC Trojans’ JuJu Watkins. Apart from that, fans will find track and field sprinter Sha’carri Richardson and Olympic gold medalist gymnast Simone Biles on the list.

Given that the list features the majority of the basketball players, Gauff and Osaka’s names brought a great sense of pride among their fans. However, this is not Osaka’s debut participation as she won the award in 2021 and 2022. Nevertheless, these WTA players’ unanimous icon, Serena Williams has a record of having the majority numbers of victories in this special category.

Serena Williams makes a lead for female tennis players in BET Awards

Designed to celebrate the best and most successful female athlete of the year, Serena Williams has won 16 awards in the category. In fact, this former world’s number one WTA star is the only woman athlete to receive the award more than twice.  From 2001 to 2005, Serena made an outstanding presence at BET awards being their consecutive Sportswoman of the Year. In 2006, she lost it to her elder sister Venus Williams and returned to her glory in 2007.

After that, Serena Williams won this award from 2009 to 2019 for ten years making an outstanding record for her fellow WTA stars. After Williams, Osaka is the second player to have two awards in this exclusive category.

Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka’s nominations for BET Awards’ Sportswoman of the Year echo these two players’ popularity and success in the United States. Whether they win or lose, making it to the nominations has impressed their fans much.