Naomi Osaka at the 2021 US Open
The former world No. 1 ranked tennis player has landed in hot water over the name given to her new media company in partnership with LeBron James.
The new media platform that the four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka launched this week in collaboration with NBA legend LeBron James has raised eyebrows in Africa. The new venture has been named Hana Kuma which means a woman who has no vagina in the Swahili language. Swahili is a Bantu language used extensively in sub-Saharan Africa. It is amongst the top 10 in terms of the most spoken languages in the world.
Osaka received massive heat on social media and she eventually tweeted:
“Prayers for all my overthinkers. We be going through it.”
While the targeted audience of this tweet isn’t mentioned by the 24-year-old, it can be easily understood that it concerns the ones lashing out at her.
Naomi told the New York Times Tuesday that Hana Kuma means “flower bear” in Japanese. However, that did not help in weathering the storm.
Naomi Osaka has won the Australian Open and US Open on two occasions each. However, in the other two Grand Slams, her best performance has been reaching the third round.
The Japanese star has had her issues with mental health that pulled her back after an immensely successful start to her career. After overcoming those demons, she competed in quite a few tournaments this year.
However, a winning campaign has eluded her. In the first Grand Slam of the year, she got ousted by the American Amanda Anisimova in the third round.
The French Open was a major debacle for the current world No. 43. She lost in the first round once again to Anisimova. However, this time in straight sets. It must be mentioned that she has had her struggles with injury. She suffered a right ankle problem in May, before the Roland Garros.
Much to the disappointment of her fans, Osaka will not be taking part in the Wimbledon competition beginning next week.
Osaka suffered an Achilles tendon problem during her first-round loss to Anisimova at the French Open. She has not been able to recover fully from the injury and this has forced her to give Wimbledon 2022 a skip.
Osaka had recently posted on her official Twitter account about her non-participation at the most prestigious tennis tournament of the year:
“My Achilles still isn’t right, so I’ll see you next time.”
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