She walked out onto Centre Court in a kimono. July 5, 2026, Wimbledon, a quarterfinal spot on the line, and across the net stood the world No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka.
Naomi Osaka won 6-2, 7-6. It was her first win over Sabalenka since the 2018 US Open, and it put her into the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time in her career.
"It's been a long time since I've had so much fun on the court, and to do it here, it really means a lot."
Naomi Osaka, after beating Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon, July 5, 2026
Karolina Muchova beat her in the quarterfinal. But if you only follow her from match to match, you have missed half of what she has been doing. Five years earlier, at the top of the game, she started building companies.
Instead of tennis
April 2021. She was the reigning champion at the US Open and the Australian Open, two of the four Slams in her hand at once. She had not played a match in more than a month, and her next one was a few days away.
Instead of talking tennis, she announced a skincare brand.
She said it came from memories of being a kid and not knowing how to protect her skin. She also admitted she had only recently started wearing sunscreen herself.
She called it Kinlo. Kin is the Japanese word for gold. Lo is the Haitian Creole word for gold. Her whole family is in those two syllables.
Two kinds of gold
Her father, Leonard Francois, is Haitian. He ran a clothing shop in Sapporo, in northern Japan, and one day Tamaki Osaka walked in with a friend. They dated in secret, because she was afraid her parents would not approve.
She was right. The couple moved far away, to the city of Osaka, married and had two girls: Mari in 1996 and Naomi in October 1997.
When Naomi was a small child, the family moved to the United States to live with her father's family outside New York City. Later they moved to Florida so the girls could play all year. Money was a constant problem. The family moved from coach to coach while trying to avoid eviction.
And there was a plan the whole time. Her father had watched Venus and Serena Williams at the 1999 French Open and decided to raise his daughters the way Richard Williams had raised his.
"The blueprint was already there. I just had to follow it."
Leonard Francois, Naomi Osaka's father, to The New York Times
No white cast
Kinlo launched in September 2021 with four products. The headliner was a mineral SPF 50 sunscreen that does not leave a white cast, alongside a hydrating mist, an eye cream and a lip balm, priced from about $15 to $50.
She built it with A-Frame Brands, a Los Angeles company led by Ari Bloom, and the products were designed with dermatologists. She called it a public health need.
Seven months later, in April 2022, Kinlo went into 2,500 Walmart stores with a bigger line at lower prices, from $4.97 to $11.97.
"I started KINLÒ to educate others about proper sun protection, no matter what they look like or where they live."
Naomi Osaka, on Kinlo's move into Walmart, April 2022
Today the brand sells mainly through Amazon. Its featured product is a tinted SPF 50 in three shades.
Her own agency
Kinlo was not even her first move off the court. In August 2020 she launched Play Academy with Nike and Laureus, to get more girls in Japan playing sport. In January 2021 she bought into the North Carolina Courage of the NWSL.
In May 2022 she walked away from IMG, the agency that had represented her, and started her own, Evolve, with her longtime agent, Stuart Duguid. The first athlete Evolve signed was Nick Kyrgios.
A month later she launched Hana Kuma, a media company built with LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill Company. The name means flower bear in Japanese. Its first project was a New York Times short documentary about Patsy Mink, the congresswoman who wrote Title IX.
Home for her birthday
In July 2023 she had a daughter, Shai. Six months later, in January 2024, she was back on tour.
The results came back with her. In 2025 she reached a final in Montreal and the semifinals of the US Open. Then came this summer at Wimbledon: the kimono, the win over Sabalenka, and her first quarterfinal at the All England Club.
In October, after the China Open, she skipped Wuhan and went home. She wrote that she wanted to see her daughter and spend her birthday with her family for the first time in years.
She turned 29 on October 16. Four Grand Slam titles, a sunscreen named for both sides of her family, and this year, a birthday she chose to spend at home.
GAMECHANGER™Reporting draws on Tennis.com, Paper, The Business of Fashion, Business Wire, ET, Hypebae, CBS Sports, Front Office Sports, Tennis365, Laureus, WTA, Just Women's Sports, The Root, Tennis Uptodate, the Asian Review of Books and Wikipedia's documented record of her career.
Sources (18)
Tennis.com: Osaka launches Kinlo, a new skincare line · Paper: Naomi Osaka on Kinlo · The Business of Fashion: Naomi Osaka to launch skin care brand for people of colour · ET: Naomi Osaka's Kinlo launch · Hypebae: Naomi Osaka's Kinlo skincare brand release · Business Wire: Naomi Osaka brings KINLÒ suncare line to mass retail for the first time · Kinlo: official site · Laureus: Naomi Osaka and Nike partner with Laureus Sport for Good to create Play Academy · CBS Sports: Naomi Osaka joins North Carolina Courage ownership group · Tennis365: Nick Kyrgios becomes the first client of Naomi Osaka's agency Evolve · CBS Sports: Naomi Osaka partners with LeBron James to launch new media company · Front Office Sports: Naomi Osaka launching production house with LeBron James' SpringHill Company · Tennis365: Who are Naomi Osaka's parents, Leonard Francois and Tamaki Osaka · Asian Review of Books: Naomi Osaka by Ben Rothenberg · The Root: Tennis champ Naomi Osaka welcomes baby girl · WTA: Osaka beats Sabalenka for first time in eight years, reaches first Wimbledon quarterfinal · Just Women's Sports: Osaka vs. Muchova, Wimbledon 2026 quarterfinals · Tennis Uptodate: Naomi Osaka puts family and birthday before career