Following the devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti over the weekend, many are doing all they can to lend a helping hand to the country and its citizens.
Those hands include tennis champion Naomi Osaka.
Per People, Osaka, whose father is Haitian, promised to donate any prize money won from her upcoming matches at the Western & Southern Open to help aid in relief efforts for the country.
“Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on in Haiti, and I feel like we really can’t catch a break,” she wrote in a tweet over the weekend. “I’m about to play a tournament this week and I’ll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors blood is strong. We’ll keep rising.”
In addition to this week’s games, Osaka is also gearing up for the 2021 US Open set to begin at the end of this month. She recently appeared at this year’s Tokyo Olympics where she suffered a surprising and shocking loss to the former French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic during the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament.
“I’m disappointed in every loss, but I feel like this one sucks more than the others,’’ Osaka told reporters at the time per ESPN, following the loss. “I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this. I think it’s maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year [it] was a bit much.’’
She later added, “I’ve taken long breaks before and I’ve managed to do well. I’m not saying that I did bad right now, but I do know that my expectations were a lot higher. I feel like my attitude wasn’t that great because I don’t really know how to cope with that pressure, so that’s the best that I could have done in this situation.’’