There’s an ear-catching line from the trailer for the new Netflix docuseries, “Naomi Osaka,” which officially became available on Netflix on Friday July 16. As the video cuts between sequences, Osaka says: “I’ve always had this pressure to maintain the squeaky image, but now I don’t care what anyone has to say.”



If that’s a proper indication of level of honesty that the series (and Osaka) is operating at, viewers should be in for a spell-binding look into the mind of the four-time major champion.

Given the fact that Osaka has not played since the first round of Roland-Garros, it’s a well-timed release, with the Japanese megastar set to resume her tennis career, and an extraordinary life lived in the public eye, next week at the tennis portion of the Tokyo Olympics, which commence on July 24.

“So this has been in the process for the past two and a half years,” Osaka wrote in a Twitter post, explaining her feelings of anticipation on the day the docuseries was released. “In light of everything that has happened recently I was terrified of this being released. This is isn’t like a tennis match where I win or lose and from there people can say whether I did well or not. This is a look into my life from certain time periods and I can’t fight the feeling of wondering how it will be received.”

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— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) July 16, 2021