“What am I if I’m not a good tennis player?” Naomi Osaka asks in the trailer for her new documentary. The three-part Netflix series directed by Academy Award nominee Garrett Bradley (Time) premieres on July 16 and follows the 23-year-old champ over the course of two years of training, traveling and competing. In the newly released trailer, we also see Osaka grappling with family, fame and injustice, as well as exploring her roots via her dual Japanese and Haitian heritage.
“The series is about Naomi’s journey, within a snapshot of her life,” Bradley said in a press release, “but it’s also about life’s purpose, about personal worth, about the courage that it takes to allow one’s personal values to inform their work and vice versa.”
Osaka has been the center of a lot of media attention over the past few months. In May, she announced that she would not participate in mandatory interviews and press conferences while competing in the 2021 French Open, resulting in a $15,000 fine. She then withdrew from the competition, citing the anxiety and depression caused by media appearances.
“Anyone that knows me knows I’m introverted, and anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that I’m often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety,” she wrote in an Instagram post. She later announced that she would also be sitting out this year’s Wimbledon.
The trailer for the doc hints at Osaka’s struggles with mental health as well. “I think the amount of attention that I get is kinda ridiculous,” she says. “I feel like I’m struggling.”
“More than anything, I’d hope people can feel the power of empathy and to feel encouraged to take chances in life, perhaps especially in moments where the stakes can feel impossibly high,” Bradley says.
Both on and off the court, the series also takes us inside Osaka’s political awakening. In the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor and so many other Black men and women, she’s masks bearing their names and participated in Black Lives Matter protests.
“I feel like the platform that I have right now is something that I used to take for granted,” Osaka says in the press release, “and for me I feel like I should be using it for something. I believe, instead of following, you have to make your own path.”
So, what is Naomi Osaka if not a “good” tennis player? How about an icon?
