It appears that Naomi Osaka took my advice to heart. In my February 1, 2019 post, I proposed that we each ponder our connections with others this Valentine’s Day. Yesterday, the number one ranked player in the world broke up with her coach, Sascha Bajin.
Osaka, the first Asian player to earn the number one ranking ever, made this announcement a few weeks after she took home the Australian Open title. That followed her win at the U.S. Open this past September, where she defeated Serena in a match memorable for other reasons. Earlier that same year, under Bajin’s stewardship, she won her first professional title at Indian Wells. Why break up now after this level of sequential success? Maybe, as George Costanza would say, she decided to leave on a high note. Or maybe he did.
The tweet from 21-year old Osaka announcing the parting was all millennial casual, beginning with “Hey everyone…” Bajin returned a lob with an equally breezy response that included the annoying Hollywood awards ceremony prayer hands emoji. But despite the fawning tweets, trouble had been brewing. Commentators now point to an interview at the Australian Open where Osaka said she really didn’t talk to Bajin before the finals. But what underlies the spit remains to be seen, but the good news is that in tennis, breaking up is not hard to do.
