Tennis star Naomi Osaka lights Olympic cauldron at Tokyo opening ceremony

Posted by on July 23, 2021 11:43 am
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Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Opening Ceremony – Japanese Tennis player Naomi Osaka lights the Olympic flame in the cauldron during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium. The ceremony is attended by only 950 VIPs due to the coronavirus pandemic. – Sebastian Gollnow/dpa

Japanese tennis superstar Naomi Osaka has lit the Olympic cauldron for the Tokyo Games at the opening ceremony.

Four-time grand slam champion and former world number one Osaka, 23, completed a 121-day torch relay across the country held rather low-key under coronavirus conditions.

Japan-born Osaka has a Japanese mother and Haitian father. They moved to the United States when she was three years old.

She is one of the big gold medal hopes for the hosts but has not played in two months since withdrawing from the French Open and then citing mental health problems.

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