Valley Stream native Naomi Osaka wins Australian Open

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Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka, who spent a portion of her childhood in Valley Stream, won the Australian Open last Saturday, beating out former champion Serena Williams, and earning a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the final over Jennifer Brady. The win gave Osaka her fourth championship and placed her in the No. 2 spot of the Women’s Tennis Association.

Born in Japan, Osaka and her sister, Mari, moved with Haitian father Leonard Maxime Francois and Japanese mother Tamaki Osaka to Valley Stream in 2000 when Naomi was 3 to live with her father’s side of the family. They lived there for six years during which time her father, using local tennis courts and gyms, looked to launch her and her sister’s tennis careers. In 2006, the family moved to southern Florida to focus on tennis full time.

Osaka recounted memories of her life in Valley Stream in a 2018 interview for the New York Times Magazine. “I grew up surrounded by both Haitian and Japanese culture,” she told The Times, noting that her grandparents spoke only Creole and that her home often smelled of spicy Haitian stews. Meanwhile, her mother continued to speak to her and her sister in Japanese and would make them seaweed-and-rice-ball snacks for lunch at Alden Terrace school, where she attended from age 5 to 8.

The 23 year old first broke into the upper rankings of the sport in 2016, and rose to further prominence in 2018, when she defeated Serena Williams in the U.S. Open to earn her first championship. Although she spent much of her life in the United States, Osaka plays for Japan.