Naomi Osaka is currently busy preparing her Miami Open, but she may have some other problems in Florida.
According to the Sun Sentinel, a tennis coach, Christophe Jean, filed a lawsuit against Naomi Osaka, her sister Mari and her father Leonard Francois over a contract signed back in 2012 by Francois, granting the coach 20 percent of all the future earnings of his daughters.
The back story
The controversy goes back to the very early days of Naomi Osaka when the Japanese was only 9 years old, and the father was desperate to find coaches to help Naomi and her sister Mari. According to reports, many coaches that put a lot of time to train Naomi and Mari were not paid for their work simply because Naomi’s parents couldn’t afford that.
Some coaches were fine with that, some others were upset; eventually Christophe Jean pulled the trigger, and he filed the lawsuit in February.
Naomi Osaka’s lawyer
Alex Spiro, Naomi Osaka’s lawyer, released the following statement
“While it comes as no surprise that Naomi’s meteoric rise as an international icon and inspiration would lead to some false claim, this silly, imaginary contract that Naomi never saw or signed which purports to give away part of herself at the age of 14 is particularly absurd.”
According to Jean’s Broward lawyer, Christopher Hahn, the contract is legal and binding.
Let’s hope everything will end nicely and Naomi can fully focus on winning more and more slams.
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