Former World No.1 and two-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka of Japan. (Getty Images)
Naomi Osaka shared a throwback video of her playing tennis with late basketball legend Kobe Bryant.
Osaka, who in the past has expressed her love and respect for Bryant on several occasions, was once again at it.
She posted an old video alongside him on her Twitter profile.
Bryant, a legend of the game and five-time NBA championship winner had passed away recently along with his daughter Gianna and seven others following a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.
It was a moment of grief as the whole sporting community mourned the death of the 41-year-old. Messages and posts offering him condolences overflowed across all social media platforms in remembrance of the former NBA star.
Meanwhile, Osaka, in a throwback of sorts, recently put up a video of her playing against Bryant in her Twitter page with the caption: “He wasn’t THAT bad at tennis 🙊😩💜💛 haha love you bro.”
Osaka, who is an avid social media user soon attracted replies to her throwback post as fans and followers of the Japanese star soon started responding by replying to her post. Here are a few of them:
Meanwhile, 22-year-old Osaka still stays as World No.10 despite changes in ranks to some of the players in the recently put out list.
The list had seen many including the likes of Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and American teenage sensation Coco Gauff and many others see a rise in their ranks.
However, Osaka, who has been out of form recently with a string of poor performances in recent matches has managed to stay in the top-ten.
Osaka had failed to defend her Australian Open title earlier this year after losing to teenager Gauff. This had seen Osaka, who began the year ranked No.4 fall to 10th place in the rank standings.
The loss against Gauff was followed by another average display at the Federation Cup Qualifiers that happened earlier this month. In the singles, Osaka lost to a lower-ranked opponent, Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.
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