The 4 time Grand Slam Champ and no.2 ranked tennis player has vowed to donate her prize money to Haiti's Relief efforts. Osaka broke the news through her official Twitter handle saying how hurt she really was in seeing the devastation that engulfed Haiti. " Really hurts to see all the devastation that's going on in Haiti, and I feel we really can't catch a break. 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.
Osaka is set to play today in the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. The champion of the women’s singles tournament will receive $255,220 and the runner up will receive $188,945 and semifinalists will receive $100,250. Nearly 1,300 people were killed when Haiti was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake on Saturday August 14th, with the death toll likely to rise and hundreds injured.
The earthquake struck about five miles from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, per the report, and about 80 miles from Port-au-Prince. The quake came more than 11 years after the island nation was hit by a disastrous 7.0 earthquake, which killed almost 250,000 people, something the country is still recovering from, and about a month after former president Jovenel Moise was assassinated. Osaka’s father, Leonard Francois, is from the Jacmel region on the southwestern peninsula close to the epicenter of Saturday’s quake. Osaka has said her upbringing included learning about both Japanese and Haitian culture.