By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, February 2, 2021
Tennis Channel analyst Lindsay Davenport asserts why she believes Naomi Osaka will be the dominant force in women's tennis for the next "five to seven years."
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Naomi Osaka knows all about major ascension.
Osaka out-dueled Petra Kvitova, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-4, in the 2019 Australian Open final to claim her second straight Grand Slam title and become the first Asian singles player—male or female—to rise to the world No. 1 ranking.
Osaka: I'm Not The Face Of Women's Tennis, Serena Is
It was a coming of age moment and now the reigning US Open champion is poised to propel women's tennis into the age of Osaka, says Hall of Famer and Tennis Channel analyst Lindsay Davenport.
Tennis Channel’s two-week telecast of the 2021 Australian Open will take place February 8-21st, with more than 25 hours of live matches from the sport’s first major of the season. The network will devote more than 175 total hours to its 14th year of AO coverage, with same-day encores, nightly commentary and analysis in addition to live competition.
Davenport joins fellow Hall of Famer Martina Navratilova and Paul Annacone, who coached Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, as lead analysts for TC's live match coverage starting Monday, February 8, at 7 p.m. Eastern time and continuing throughout championship weekend.
Davenport asserts the third-ranked Osaka will dominant women's tennis for the next five to seven years.
"I think Osaka is going to be kind of the dominant force in women's tennis in the next five to seven years if she continues to play that long," Davenport told Tennis Now during a Tennis Channel conference call with the media to prom. "I assume she will. I think her team, everybody around her, has a pretty good handle on what is the amount she needs to play.
"We only want her to play if she is ready to go and she's happy. I think that they have done a very good job of letting her blossom as a young, one of the most famous now females in the world."
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Indeed, Osaka has shown she can deliver her best on major stages—three of her six career titles are Grand Slam championships. Osaka topped Forbes list as the highest-paid female athlete in the world setting a record for highest earning by a woman athlete in history.
The 23-year-old Osaka used her platform as an agent for change to support Black Lives Matter and social justice throughout a 2020 season that saw her post a 16-3 record and rally past Victoria Azarenka to win her second US Open title in the last three years.
Since she stunned her tennis hero, Serena Williams, to capture the 2018 US Open crown, Osaka has grown much more comfortable in her role as a game-changing champion though she still defers to 23-time Grand Slam champion as the face of women's tennis.
"Honestly I don't feel that way," Osaka said. "I don't know, there's so many interesting new people. I think I'm one of the new people. I don't know. As long as Serena's here, I think she's the face of women's tennis."
Davenport, one of the rare champions to hold the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, views Osaka's dynamic aggression, her family support and her maturity managing on-court stress along with off-court role as brand ambassador for Nike, Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer, among others, as signs she's ready to take charge of women's tennis.
"Given her independence, given her (desire) to take over her own career, we don't see the overbearing parents in her case, we don't see the unhappiness," Davenport said. "We've seen her stress on court, but we've seen her to come into a person of her own in the last few years.
"I give all the credit to her parents and team for letting that happen. I think they've set her up to succeed the next few years."