At just 22, Naomi Osaka has already solidified her place in tennis history. Born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, Osaka became the first Asian player — woman or man — to be ranked number one in the world, and her tournament winnings and lucrative endorsement deals have made her the highest-paid female athlete in the world. Frequently described as “shy” by the media, Osaka found her voice in 2020 when, after the killing of George Floyd, she flew to Minneapolis without telling her agent or coach in order to join the city’s Black Lives Matter protests. Her schedule had been lightened by the pandemic.“I’ve always watched protests on TV, and I never had the chance to go because I was always playing tennis,” she explained. But when she encouraged her more than 500,000 Twitter followers to join a protest in Osaka, her mother’s hometown, she encountered resistance from fans in Japan, where conservative racial attitudes remain deeply entrenched. Many of her fans warned her to keep her views to herself. But Osaka has refused to remain silenced. In August, she withdrew from a semifinal match in order to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. And on her way to winning the U.S. Open in September, she wore masks bearing the names of Black victims of police violence — earning praise from their families. “I hate when random people say athletes shouldn’t get involved with politics and just entertain,” she said, in response to criticism. “Firstly, this is a human rights issue. Secondly, what gives you more right to speak than me?”