Tennis racket used by Naomi Osaka at the 2020 U.S. Open
name: label: user
content: Osaka, Naomi
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Tennis racket used by Naomi Osaka at the 2020 U.S. Open. The racket is white with white strings and the Yonex logo in red. White plastic grip tape is affixed to the handle and "Naomi" is printed in black and located at the Y-junction of the racket.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Naomi Osaka began her professional career as a 15-year-old tennis phenom and by 23 was a four-time grand slam champion. After withdrawing from the 2021 French Open for mental health reasons, Osaka began using her global platform to draw attention to issues affecting athletes, including pressures impacting her own and other athletes’ mental health.
label: Description
content: When the Covid-19 pandemic halted the world in 2020, Naomi Osaka, along with her fellow athletes, were forced to take a five-month hiatus from tennis tournaments. During this time Osaka became deeply involved the Black Lives Matter movement. Born to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, Osaka has always identified as both Japanese and Haitian. Although she plays under the Japanese flag, her upbringing in New York and Florida as well as her identity as a Black woman has pushed her to speak up about systemic racism and police brutality in the U.S. At the women’s final for the U.S. Open in 2020, Osaka sported seven face masks, one for each round through the final, bearing the different names of Black people killed in recent years by police brutality. The racket in our collection was used by Osaka at the 2020 U.S. Open. The racket is white with white strings with the Yonex logo in red. There is white plastic grip tape affixed to the handle and "Naomi" is printed in black and located at the Y-junction of the racket.
label: Description
content: Despite trailing after the first set of the final, Osaka went on to defeat her opponent, Victoria Azarenka, winning her third grand slam.
topic: label: name of sport
content: Tennis
label: level of sport
content: Professional
label: web subject
content: Women
label: web subject
content: Asian Americans
label: web subject
content: African American
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Sport and Leisure
label: See more items in
content: Sports & Leisure
label: Exhibition
content: We Belong Here
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2021.0085.01
label: accession number
content: 2021.0085
label: catalog number
content: 2021.0085.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tennis racket
label: Object Name
content: tennis racquet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: graphite (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: nylon (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 27 in x 10 1/4 in x 1 1/2 in; 68.58 cm x 26.035 cm x 3.81 cm