Skip to Content
Off Court

A Letter From Naomi Osaka

[vc_empty_space height="5px"]

By Naomi Osaka

[vc_empty_space height="15px"]This issue isn’t all about me, it’s about my world. I feel like this is a different lens to see my orbit from—a more interesting one for the reader. Everyone knows most of my answers to the standard questions by now, so there’s not much more I can add to my biography or tennis results. So asking Racquet to write about and illustrate my world, I hope, will allow people to see me from a different perspective. I felt it was time to offer a commentary on the culture around the periphery of tennis, rather than forehands and backhands. The edition touches on things I’m interested in like fashion, travel, art, and photography, so there was so much potential to broaden the context in which I’m seen.

Racquet published one of the first profiles of me, in the fall of 2016, before I’d made a mark in professional tennis. I think it was interesting back then because most people didn’t know me or my story, but now it’s been told so many times it’s starting to lose its relevance, so I’m excited to do something different and fresh. There have been a lot of newspaper columns devoted to my personal story, so for me it’s time to turn the page and talk about cool stuff that we can all relate to together.

For the cover, I chose the Nigerian visual artist Dennis Osadebe. I have a few pieces of his in my house and I think he’s awesome. As for the rest of the magazine in your hands, the interpretation is in the eye of the beholder, so I have no preconceived ideas about what anyone will take away from this project. I hope there’s a broad enough spectrum here that there’s something that everyone can relate to, or enjoy consuming.

naomi_end-point

[vc_empty_space height="10px"]Above: Johanna Goodman (Getty/Robert Wilson)[vc_column width="1/6"][vc_tweetmeme share_via="racqetmagazine"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_facebook type="button_count"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_column width="1/6"][vc_empty_space height="45px"][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_column width="1/2"]

ISSUE NO. 17
By NAOMI OSAKA

racquet_issue-17

[vc_btn title="BUY NOW" style="outline" shape="square" color="success" size="lg" align="center" button_block="true" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fracquetmag.com%2Fproduct%2Fissue-no-17%2F|title:GET%20IT%20NOW||"][vc_column width="1/4"]

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More Stories

The Art of Staying Present

A Canadian artist finds inspiration on Texas tennis courts

June 26, 2026

Spoils Rotten (and Good)

The Best and Worst Trophies on Tour

June 17, 2026

Grass at Last!

Racquet welcomes a shift to the green stuff, and chats with Matteo Berrettini on injuries, BOSS, and the genetic lottery.

June 17, 2026

What if Dan Evans is the Hottest Player on Tour?

On the eve of his retirement, we celebrate the working-class hero with the definitive list of the kind of hot guy shit he's been up to for decades that suggests maybe he is.

June 11, 2026

Racquet’s 2026 Summer Must-Have List

Our Must-Have list is is also a Must-Do and frankly a Must-Be list as well. We don’t make the rules; we just help you abide by them in style, by finding and play-testing and visiting our way around the globe.

June 9, 2026

What Roland-Garros Inherited from Central Africa

Before France inherited its last men's Roland-Garros champion, Arthur Ashe spotted an eleven-year-old boy in Yaoundé. The miracle made Yannick Noah. The question is why tennis never built the road again.

June 8, 2026