Japan’s Naomi Osaka has broken into the top 10 most searched athletes in 2018 in Google’s annual list.
The 21-year-old has come sixth in the most search athlete over the past 12 months on the search engine and is the only tennis player to have reached the top 10. Osaka’s surge in popularity on google occurred on September 9th, the day after she won the US Open. Osaka defeated Serena Williams in straight sets to win her maiden grand slam title in what was a dramatic final.
Haiti was the most popular location of searches for Osaka, whose father was born in that country. The data is calculated based on the highest proportion of all queries per country instead of the highest amount. Looking at the figures further by city, Osaka scored the highest search rating in San Francisco. Followed by the American cities of New York, Washington and Younkers.
This season Osaka peaked at a ranking high of fourth in the world. Becoming only the third Japanese player to reach that position in the world rankings after Kimiko Date and Kei Nishikori. There is yet to be a player from that country to break into the top three. Besides the US Open, Osaka also won the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells following her win over Daria Kasatkina. She was also runner-up at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo to Karolina Pliskova. Overall, she achieved a win-loss record of 41-21.
“For me, I shouldn’t just be doing well on hard courts. I think I should be doing well on all surfaces,” Osaka told reporters at the WTA Finals in Singapore. “I think I’m capable of doing that. So definitely I want to try to focus on that next year.”
Earlier this week, Osaka also topped another poll. A survey of 2000 people in the UK placed her first in the list of most unfairly treated athletes of the year. The ranking is in relation to her bittersweet US Open triumph, which was overshadowed by Serena Williams’ clash with umpire Carlos Ramos.
Osaka ends 2018 winning a total of $6,394,289 in prize money. She will start her new season at the start of next month in Brisbane, Australia.
Google’s most searched athletes in 2018 (globally)
1.Tristan Thompson – basketball
2. Alexis Sánchez – football
3. Lindsey Vonn – Skiing
4. Shaun White – Snowboarding
5. Khabib Nurmagomedov – UFC/Mixed martial arts
6. Kawhi Leonard – Basketball
7. Naomi Osaka – tennis
8. Philippe Coutinho – football
9. Conor McGregor – UFC
10. Harry Kane – football
NOTE: List is based on search terms that had the highest spike this year as compared to the previous year.
