- Before and after her first-round victory at the U.S. Open, Naomi Osaka wore a mask bearing the name of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was fatally shot by police.
- It’s just one of seven face coverings, each in honor of a different person, that Osaka brought to Flushing Meadows — the same number of wins it takes to claim a Grand Slam trophy.
- The world’s highest-earning female athlete hopes she can get the chance to raise awareness about racial injustice by using each mask during her stay in New York.
- It was during that tournament last week that Osaka took a public stand by saying she would refuse to play her semifinal,
- Joining athletes in various other sports who walked out to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man, by a police officer in Wisconsin.
- Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old who was fatally shot when police officers burst into her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation in March.
