![]() ![]() With one Grand Slam tournament left for Osaka on the 2021 tour - the US Open will start in late August - Osaka has given the sport of tennis and the journalists who cover it an opportunity to learn an important lesson from this moment. Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open, and later from Wimbledon, confronted that truth by presenting the question: If the press conferences often veer away from tennis into gossipy speculation and personal attacks, then why should players risk their mental health to participate in them? But it’s ugliest toward women of color, and has been since Serena and Venus Williams first came on the scene more than 20 years ago. A lot of players are subjected to some wild nonsense in their pressers. Osaka, whether she intended to or not, called attention to a topic that tennis fans could give TED talks about: the perpetual cycle of tennis journalists committing faults and errors against female tennis players, and especially female tennis players of color like Osaka.įor a sport that loves its tradition and its history of class, wealth, and elegance (next time you watch a match on TV, make a note of how many Rolex ads you see), the media that covers it has a longstanding habit of bending toward tabloid journalism. After garnering support from fellow players, professional athletes in other sports, and celebrities, it raised questions about whether talking to reporters was more important than the mental health of the tour’s brightest young star. It’s not hard to see how Osaka’s choice to opt out of the Grand Slam tour’s media requirements - players are contractually obligated to participate in post-match press conferences - would irk a group that’s already very sensitive to being irked.īut Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open did more than ruffle feathers. The president of the French Tennis Federation suggested Williams was disrespecting the game. Williams said she had been wearing the custom-designed bodysuit to help with circulation and prevent potentially fatal blood clots, which she had a history with, and which she’d experienced after giving birth to her daughter the year before the tournament. The French Open’s rigid response to Osaka was somewhat familiar to tennis fans who watched its organizing body, the French Tennis Federation, arbitrarily ban Serena Williams from wearing a catsuit during her French Open matches in 2018. Osaka accepted that she’d be penalized for declining to appear before the media, and said she would pay the “considerable amount I get fined for this” out of pocket. “We’re often sat there and asked questions we’ve been asked multiple times before and questions that bring doubt into our minds,” she wrote on Twitter. ![]() Prior to the French Open - the second of the four Grand Slam tournaments, which wrapped up last weekend - Osaka had said she wouldn’t participate in mandatory press conferences because she wanted to preserve her mental health. (She said she will, for now, play in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.) In the weeks that followed, she would withdraw from her second consecutive Grand Slam, Wimbledon, citing plans to take some personal time with friends and family. 2-ranked women’s tennis player in the world and four-time Grand Slam champion, breezed through her first-round match and then withdrew from the tournament before her second round of play. The story that eclipsed all others was that Naomi Osaka walked away. The biggest story at the 2021 French Open wasn’t who won. ![]()
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