It wasn’t long before the world took notice of Serena and Venus Williams’ prodigious success as tennis players, and they were credited with most of it by their father, Richard Williams. In spite of the common belief that lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice, Naomi and Mari Osaka, two young tennis players being mentored by their father Leonard Francois, look to be experiencing a second lightning strike.
While Leonard Francois took over his two daughters’ development at an early age, Richard Williams was able to turn them into international stars, with Naomi Osaka winning the 2018 U.S. Open after beating her idol Serena Williams in the final.
Leonard Francois, her father and the man who helped launch her career, is profiled here.
Leonard Francois Biography.
Despite the widespread acceptance and normalization of inter-racial relationships, some unions still manage to surprise, not just in the marriage but all the way to the offspring that result. The multicultural future of the world has taken different forms, so much so that it has become an accepted norm for millions of people around the globe. Former Haitian tennis player Leonard Francois ended up in Japan, where he met and fell in love with a Japanese woman. That’s his story.
The only known information about Leonard’s past begins in Japan after he relocated to the Asian country from New York, where he spent a fraction of his childhood. Leonard prefers to keep the spotlight on his daughters, so there is very little information available about his life before moving to Japan.
In Sapporo, the Hokkaido capital, he met Tamaki Osaka, the woman who would become his wife. Leonard Francois and Tamaki moved to Osaka after graduating from college in Sapporo, where they met and had their daughters, Mari and Naomi.
Leonard Francois was inspired to teach his daughters the sport after seeing the Williams sisters dominate the French Open in 1999. He wanted his daughters to achieve the same success as the Williams sisters. Francois began a journey that would lead to the development of two of the greatest tennis players of all time using the little experience he had gained from playing the game in his youth and the pattern laid down by Richard Williams.
When he brought his family back to the United States in 2001, his youngest daughter Naomi was three years old and his most successful athlete, and he began implementing his strategy to make his girls global stars shortly after.
Leonard Francois moved his girls to Florida in 2006 after five years in New York, where he continued their tennis training at Pembroke Pines Public Courts.
To date, the road he placed his girls on has largely gained him global notoriety through his daughter Naomi, who has won several WTA tournaments including the Australian Open, beating one of the players who served as inspiration for his daughters’ trip.
His Wife was Estranged From Her Family For 15 years
The consequences from disapproving family members is typically great when it comes to inter-racial relationships, as Leonard Francois and Tamaki Osaka found out after Tamaki told her parents about her relationship with the Haitian. The couple had been separated for 15 years when they were reunited with their two daughters and returned to Japan in 2008.
Leonard Francois Homeschooled His Daughters
As part of Leonard Francois’s ambition to make tennis stars out of his daughters, he decided to homeschool them rather than send them to an American high school. Leonard says it’s one of Richard Williams’ training blueprint concepts he picked up.
See Also: Winifer Fernandez – Biography And Professional Volleyball Career
He Wanted His Daughters To Represent Japan
It’s a decision that has paid off so far, since Leonard Francois’ daughter Naomi is the highest-ranked female Japanese tennis player, despite spending a portion of his boyhood in the US and raising his girls there