fourtimes major winner naomi osaka is breaking away from img to launch her own sports agency with longtime agent stuart duguidduguid and osaka began discussing the venture at the tokyo olympics last year duguid told reuters via email adding that the firm called evolve will operate as a small boutique and bespoke agencywe were discussing the business models of some of her mentors like kobe bryant and lebron james we thought why has no transcendent female athlete done that yet he saidits athlete driven and focused on big picture brand building rather than quick checks with a commission attachedduguid said he could not share much about the identities of the initial clients but added it would be only athletes who transcend their sports or those with the potential to do soformer number one osaka the first player for japan to win a grand slam has emerged as a leading advocate for athlete mental health and wellbeing since she pulled out of the french open a year ago and disclosed she had been suffering from depression for yearson wednesday she tweeted a compilation of clips from her earlier playing days in which she discussed her career aspirations with the caption hey kid youve come a long way and even though theres been some bumps on the road i hope you know youre doing amazingin one of the clips she prophetically discussed what she might be doing were she not a tennis playeri just like sports so maybe i would be like an agent in the end she said