The story behind the seven Naomi Osaka masks

Naomi Osaka has packed seven masks in her suitcase, one for each match she would have to play if she returns to the US Open final.

The 2018 champion starts among the favorites in a tournament in which six of the 10 best tennis players in the world are missing.

It's a declaration of intent, but not the most important: each mask is imprinted with the name of a victim of police violence in the United States.

Osaka, of a Japanese mother and Haitian father, was born in Japan but raised in Florida and is being one of the most active voices in tennis.

Last week she resigned from the semifinals of the Cincinnati tournament (held in New York due to the pandemic) in protest at the Jacob Blake shooting, although she ended up playing through the mediation of the WTA and the USA Federation.

The world number 9 took to the track two days later wearing a T-shirt with the slogan 'Black Lives Matter' curled into a raised fist.

"As a black woman, I feel like there are bigger issues that need our immediate attention instead of watching me play tennis," she explained, joining a strike that started in the NBA and spread to the rest of American sport (from her sister, the WNBA, to MLB, MLS or preseason football).

"I don't expect any drastic changes, but if I can start the conversation in a predominantly white sport it will have been a step in the right direction. Seeing the continued genocide of the black population at the hands of the police makes me sick."

It is evident that there is no genocide, a very thick word, but also that the black community is the most affected by police violence.

In 2015 the 'Washington Post' created a database in which it records every deadly police shooting.

The data show that the proportion of victims among the black population (32 per million inhabitants) is more than double that of the white population (13 per million).

The disparity is even greater among unarmed victims: although the black community represents 13% of the population of the United States, between 2015 and 2018 they were 36% of the fatalities by police shooting who were unarmed.

Breonna Taylor, Choose McClain ...

Before the first round match against her compatriot

(6-2, 5-7 and 6-2), Osaka appeared with a mask bearing the name of

.

"Someone may not know her story and maybe they will Google it or something. It's about people having a conscience," she explained after her first-round win.

Taylor, to spare the search, was killed in a drug bust in March.

Three plainclothes officers entered his home at night with a search warrant without warning and his partner, believing it to be a robbery, fired at the door.

The officers responded with more than twenty blind shots.

At least five injured Taylor, who died after 20 minutes without receiving medical assistance.

Breonna Taylor had no prior records and no drugs were found in her home.

One of the agents was fired for firing 10 shots "with extreme disregard for the value of human life", but Justice has not yet held responsible.

In the second round, for her duel against

(6-1, 6-1), Naomi Osaka bore the name of

, a 23-year-old who died in August 2019 at the hands of the police.

McClain went shopping under the house and someone called the police saying he had a suspicious attitude.

Although the three officers who attended were carrying a body video camera, there is no video of the struggle because, they allege, all three fell to the ground just at that moment.

To immobilize a young man weighing less than 1.70 and just over 60 kilos between three officers, they strangled him with a key that oppresses the carotid, a technique that has since been banned (the same technique that Eric Garner died for).

Although McClain vomited several times and called for help, he was rendered unconscious.

On the way to the hospital, he suffered a cardiac arrest, possibly from receiving a high dose of ketamine in the ambulance.

McClain, who was not armed or committed a crime, died days later.

Serena's silence

Osaka's claim contrasts with the position of

, who has preferred to stay on the sidelines.

In the past, Williams has publicly supported the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and protests by figures like

, but this time he has declined to speak.

"There is a lot of injustice, but I have other spiritual beliefs," she said, in a response full of corrections and ellipsis.

Williams remains focused on her pursuit of the 24th major of her career, a mark that would equal

absolute record

and which has resisted her since the Australian Open in 2017. Since then she has lost all four Grand Slam finals that she has. played, including the last two at the US Open.

In 2019, against

and in 2018, against

, who aims to be her great rival again in 2020.

The Japanese woman hopes to reissue her 2018 title, the first of two greats in a row that boosted her to number one in the world at just 21 years old.

Her next opponent in the third round will be the Ukrainian

, number 138 in the world.

Osaka and Williams start as big favorites in a draw where six of the top 10 in the WTA rankings are missing and, if nothing goes wrong, they will not cross until the seventh mask.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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