Naomi Osaka withdraws from French Open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So does she have social anxiety or did she want to win it and was worried that journalists will bring her confidence down?
One is perfectly acceptable the other is cheating the odds!
Every single player can say that journalists will bring them down! And they have to face them. If she is exempt from it, well how is that fair to the others?
It's not!
Do you think it is easy for Novak Djokovic to play at the U.S. Open and have the crown jeer against him and openly mock him and disrupt his serve?
Do you think he loves it when the crowd chants Roger, Nadal, Andy?
Yeah, no. I was in her corner thinking she did it bcs like my kid she wants to run away from the situation like a deer in headlights due to social anxiety.
If the other is the reason, she now has no chance to win it. Talk about being stupid!

Can't it be both, and aren't both on a spectrum?

No, I don't think so. One is gaming the system, the other is a legit health issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So does she have social anxiety or did she want to win it and was worried that journalists will bring her confidence down?
One is perfectly acceptable the other is cheating the odds!
Every single player can say that journalists will bring them down! And they have to face them. If she is exempt from it, well how is that fair to the others?
It's not!
Do you think it is easy for Novak Djokovic to play at the U.S. Open and have the crown jeer against him and openly mock him and disrupt his serve?
Do you think he loves it when the crowd chants Roger, Nadal, Andy?
Yeah, no. I was in her corner thinking she did it bcs like my kid she wants to run away from the situation like a deer in headlights due to social anxiety.
If the other is the reason, she now has no chance to win it. Talk about being stupid!

Can't it be both, and aren't both on a spectrum?

No, I don't think so. One is gaming the system, the other is a legit health issue.

She also said "we get asked the same questions that we've been asked multiple times before" and "they put doubt into our minds." That's what she said. So she's annoyed with it, it gets in her head as an athlete, and she also struggles with depression. She mentioned the first two first.
Hopefully some change will come from this. I just don't think she went about it the right way (for herself, ultimately. I mean, she's the one now sitting out a major Slam tournament.)

[Anonymous]

This is a thing, it's not just Naomi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a thing, it's not just Naomi.

I’ll have to relisten but did she say she plays better tennis than the journalists? That didn’t make sense to me because they are journalists, they are not tennis players or, is she just saying she’s a superior human to them in which case I find to be offputting.

[Anonymous]

For those of you who say she should have been allowed to pay the fines, not all players can afford $15k/day in fines. Are you saying that the top players can avoid letting the media get into their head, but the lower rungs of the WTA are SOL?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a thing, it's not just Naomi.

Love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a thing, it's not just Naomi.

I’ll have to relisten but did she say she plays better tennis than the journalists? That didn’t make sense to me because they are journalists, they are not tennis players or, is she just saying she’s a superior human to them in which case I find to be offputting.

Yes, she's saying she plays better tennis than the journalists. She's coming at it from a "those who can, do; those who can't teach/write about it" sort of approach. It's a way for her to feel superior in the moment, when someone is trying to mess with her head is how I took it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who say she should have been allowed to pay the fines, not all players can afford $15k/day in fines. Are you saying that the top players can avoid letting the media get into their head, but the lower rungs of the WTA are SOL?

Exactly. It's not a solution to this problem, if there even is one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who say she should have been allowed to pay the fines, not all players can afford $15k/day in fines. Are you saying that the top players can avoid letting the media get into their head, but the lower rungs of the WTA are SOL?

Exactly. It's not a solution to this problem, if there even is one.

But the ones who can't afford it aren't the players getting hounded for interviews

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They will lose viewership. Ratings will down. Naomi is on her way to Serena’s level of play. Back in the day when the Williams’ sisters played ratings were up, when Tiger played ratings were up. I bet most of the folks commenting on this thread couldn’t name two other top tennis players male or female other than Serena, Naomi, Rafa, Joker and Roger. Naomi was willing to pay the price (fines), her issue was the expulsion. So I don’t know where all this snowflake, privileged, entitlement comments are coming from. Clearly from people who don’t follow tennis or know her reputation on and off the court among her peers.

Everyone says mental health is important but when someone exercises their right to stand up for their mental health they’re being entitled? GTFOH. Anyone who has followed her career knows how sincere she is and her actions are completely in line with everything she has talked about since winning the US Open in 2018. Her statement is not a surprise to her fans, nor should it be to the media. She has consistently discussed how much the after match pressers cause her anxiety and are mentally taxing. It’s not like she can take a Xanax.

Naomi will find her way out of this and still be on top.

Do you think the other players like post-game interviews? Of course not, but it’s part of the job. (I find certain conference calls at my work to be anxiety-causing and stressful, but I’m not going to have my job for much longer if I tell my boss that I’m opting out for mental health reasons.)

I’m sure most professional athletes would like to only answer questions that are favorable to them and posed by fans. But if that starts happening, then ratings will go down, and the athletes will be upset that they’re making fewer millions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Naomi’s sister implied that Naomi didn’t want to talk to the press because she didn’t want them to plant seeds of doubt in her head regarding her ability to win on clay. Of course they can’t let certain athletes skip universal obligations for strategic reasons.

https://nypost.com/2021/06/01/naomi-osakas-sister-on-deleted-reddit-post-i-f-ked-up/

She herself said it. I just don't get why anyone thinks she can just decide for herself what rules she'll follow and what she won't. She's "supposed" to be an elite tennis player. With that comes the obligation to meet with the media. But she doesn't want to because it messes with her self-confidence, wait, I have depression and anxiety. I'm just not buying it. Don't play Slam events then. It's ridiculous.

+1. Snowflake syndrome.

I don't care that you're all going to screech that you aren't chronologically so, but every one of you throwing around idiocy like "snowflake" and putting ironic quotes around mental health terms have pathetically ignorant Boomer energy.

Your unnecessarily cruel post is damaging to my mental health. Why would you think it’s okay to make an effort to hurt someone else’s mental health when you claim to care about the mental health of others?

[Anonymous]

Tell me in which job can you just tell your company that from now on you will not do a certain part of the job?
And there are rules and regulations that come with the job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me in which job can you just tell your company that from now on you will not do a certain part of the job?
And there are rules and regulations that come with the job?

When you are the number #2 tennis player in the world and the highest paid female athlete in the world, they will make adjustments. Maybe Naomi didn’t handle this well, but neither did the French Open Leadership. Changes will be made. No major tournament wants this kind of press.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me in which job can you just tell your company that from now on you will not do a certain part of the job?
And there are rules and regulations that come with the job?

You’re missing something. They said “but the rules”, she said “fine, bye”

They’re the one’s who lost out btw. Not her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me in which job can you just tell your company that from now on you will not do a certain part of the job?
And there are rules and regulations that come with the job?

When you are the number #2 tennis player in the world and the highest paid female athlete in the world, they will make adjustments. Maybe Naomi didn’t handle this well, but neither did the French Open Leadership. Changes will be made. No major tournament wants this kind of press.

I'm sure the US open will make adjustments. I doubt the French care. If anything, the absence of a good American is probably a positive to the organizers