Noami Osaka Pulls Out of French Opening Due to Injury

22 year old Tennis star Naomi Osaka, who is the recent winner of the US Open that took place last Saturday, announced via Twitter that she will not play in this month's French Open which was postponed due to the rising number of the pandemic .

"Unfortunately I won't be able to play the French Open this year. My hamstring is still sore so I won't have enough time to prepare for the clay -- these 2 tournaments came too close to each other for me this time. I wish the organizers and players all the best.” said Osaka.

The French Open is scheduled on Sunday, September 27th in Paris.

Osaka earned her third major title in New York thanks to a three-set comeback victory over Victoria Azarenka. The win culminated a dominant three-week stretch for Osaka; during the two-tournament bubble, she won 11 consecutive matches. She advanced to the Western & Southern Open final during the first week, but withdrew due to a hamstring injury. She had her hamstring taped throughout the US Open.

Before her injury, she was a beast at tennis as she was ranked Number 1 by the Women's Tennis Association, but she was also an activist and helped raise awareness to the Black Lives Matter movement.

In order to show her support she would wear different masks to her games. Naomi was born to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father. At the semifinals she chose to sit out in honor of Jacob Blake, a victim of police brutality and unnecessary excessive force from an officer.

Not only was she raising awareness, she was also inspiring others at the same time.

“I saw after the US Open, was it Naomi? I saw what she’d done with her face mask and I was like this is a very strong voice for us, it is prime real estate— I saw she’d used it really well and when I received this I was like, ‘it’s perfect’. So it should be that simple: treat everybody equally and everybody’s happy, that’s how the world goes on, but it’s not like that.” said Daniel Riccoardo.

According to the entrepreneur “Osaka oozes authenticity. Her post-match conferences are honest, unscripted and mostly brief. She is comfortable in her own skin admitting when she's nervous or even star-struck. She's also aware that on "any given day," an opponent can lose. So can she. No one bats 1.000, and it's that sliver of opportunity that she exploits.”