Tennis player Naomi Osaka gets inspriation from Pokemon theme

Professional athletes need to seek motivation wherever they can, and Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka is looking to a particularly unlikely place to fuel her run into the third round of the Australian Open.

Professional athletes need to seek motivation wherever they can, and Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka is looking to a particularly unlikely place to fuel her run into the third round of the Australian Open.

Osaka, who trains in the United States with her Hatian father, spoke with The New York Timesabout her relationship with her Japanese heritage and quoted the theme song to Pokemon as a summation of her career goals.

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“To be the very best, like no one ever was,”

she declared confidently

, then smiled expectantly.

...

“That’s a Pokemon quote, I’m sorry,” she said. “That’s the Pokemon theme song. But, yeah, to be the very best, and go as far as I can go.”

Osaka did not require the help of any of the pocket monsters in her second round upset over Elina Svitolina.

– Brendan Maloy