Naomi Osaka by Fiona Cowood, Acting Assistant Editor

This three-part series is not so much about Naomi Osaka as a top league tennis player but as a deep thinker – an introverted icon who has been conditioned for success but wrestles endlessly with the question: what happens if I lose?

A quiet, poignant film, its Netflix release came after Osaka withdrew from the French Open citing ‘long bouts of depression’, and while the film doesn’t cover those events, it gives fascinating insight and context as to what might have led her there.

Self-doubt, loneliness and confusion overshadow Osaka’s interior life, while her team and the wider world hungrily await new triumphs on the court. I was particularly struck by a scene in which Osaka is celebrating her 22nd birthday at a restaurant and asks her mum: “Did you think by the time I was 22, I would have done more?” More?

Osaka’s experience of success is distinctly lacking in joy and the relentless call of the practice court shows how mundanely repetitive being a top-flight tennis player can be, but it’s not all bleak. In the final episode, Osaka finds her voice and flexes her power towards the issues she cares about - Black Lives Matter, injustice in Haiti. I was thoroughly absorbed – and I really hope the team around Emma Raducanu has watched it too.

Watch on Netflix

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