Naomi Osaka withdraws from French Open

[Anonymous]

WTA is not a HS sport where your doctor can excuse you from PE!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get this. Didn't Naomi know about the press conference requirement BEFORE she decide to participate?

Yes, she chose to not go interviews and take the fine.

But then they got mad and decided to change the rules and try to have her removed from all tennis competitions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WTA is not a HS sport where your doctor can excuse you from PE!

Medical exemptions in pro and Olympic sports is nothing new.

Keep up, read a book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get this. Didn't Naomi know about the press conference requirement BEFORE she decide to participate?

Yes, she chose to not go interviews and take the fine.

But then they got mad and decided to change the rules and try to have her removed from all tennis competitions.

DP. They didn’t change the rules. Get your facts straight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But the tournaments do want ratings. The fewer interviews, the fewer people know the major players or pay attention to the matches. The players won’t be happy with the long-term effects of such a move.

They can do interviews but not on game day.

People are most interested in athletes on game days. That’s when they have eyeballs on them. It’s their play on game days that makes them rich and famous.

[Anonymous]

This.is.not.a.new.problem

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtLmwU_MHc&feature=youtu.be

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Nobody watches tennis for the interviews. And the structure of media has changed since the pre-internet / social media days when athletes relied on TV and interviews to connect with fans. They don't need media outlets anymore, so journalists are whining. The current grand slam structure is clearly not running very effectively, and yeah, Naomi could've played into it, but instead she used her clout to highlight a particular flaw of the system. More power to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone who promotes BLM and wears names of dead Black folks doesn’t strike me as someone who fears media attention. She wanted to pay the fee to protect herself from answering questions about her game. Ridiculous.

Clearly you don’t follow her or have ever heard her in a press conference. She has no problems answering questions about her GAME! You think a player who has beaten Serena Williams has trouble answering questions about her game? You sound the the journalists she was talking about. Ridiculous. She doesn’t have to pay for protection from questions about her GAME because she wins. GTFOH.

DP. Her sister said she didn’t want to answer questions about whether she could win on clay because it might cause her to doubt herself. That is in fact a question about her game.

+1. Her first tweet about this said she didn't want them to get in her head about her game. So you're just wrong PP. She does in fact have problems answering questions about her GAME, which is why I'm having a problem with this.

Again you guys don’t follow her and only reading the hype. She was willing to do the press, she didn’t want to do it on game days or right after matches. Many times on her IG live she said that she had panic attacks after matches even when she won. All of this started after winning the US Open in 2018. Listen to what Naomi said, not what her sister said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But the tournaments do want ratings. The fewer interviews, the fewer people know the major players or pay attention to the matches. The players won’t be happy with the long-term effects of such a move.

Look, tournaments are a business. They need media to promote their business to sell tickets, to get networks to buy televising rights. She wants to win grandslams. This is the case of where RG can't win no matter how they handle it.
If they allow her the exception, they are neglecting lower-ranked players and making it unfair for them. So, 127 players don't get the "out of press free" card but one does? She is not up later after matches doing presser. The others are, hence she can get two hours extra sleep and recovery between matches. She can go straight to bed after the match without any other negative emotions, while the rest go to bed rethinking and more tired than Osaka?
How is that fair?
So, who is RG to choose? A player that handled this so poorly and put them in a spot of accommodating her and being unfair to all the other players, or accommodating the other players and those that promote their tournament around the world?
I don't see what other option RG organizers had.

Exactly this. She's absolutely trying to game the system. I don't care if you all don't like "the system," but she's trying to get a better deal than the all of the other players, and it's simply not fair. By her own admission, it's to keep a better handle on her mental game. She handled this 100% wrong.

Not all jobs can handle depression and anxiety. Plenty of jobs would qualify as "I probably shouldn't do this job given my depression and anxiety." That may be where she finds herself, as she backs herself into a corner. But once she admitted this gives her a mental advantage, not JUST that she has depression and anxiety, it was game over in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone who promotes BLM and wears names of dead Black folks doesn’t strike me as someone who fears media attention. She wanted to pay the fee to protect herself from answering questions about her game. Ridiculous.

Clearly you don’t follow her or have ever heard her in a press conference. She has no problems answering questions about her GAME! You think a player who has beaten Serena Williams has trouble answering questions about her game? You sound the the journalists she was talking about. Ridiculous. She doesn’t have to pay for protection from questions about her GAME because she wins. GTFOH.

DP. Her sister said she didn’t want to answer questions about whether she could win on clay because it might cause her to doubt herself. That is in fact a question about her game.

+1. Her first tweet about this said she didn't want them to get in her head about her game. So you're just wrong PP. She does in fact have problems answering questions about her GAME, which is why I'm having a problem with this.

Again you guys don’t follow her and only reading the hype. She was willing to do the press, she didn’t want to do it on game days or right after matches. Many times on her IG live she said that she had panic attacks after matches even when she won. All of this started after winning the US Open in 2018. Listen to what Naomi said, not what her sister said.

right before or after matches are the only time the vast majority of viewers care

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Someone who promotes BLM and wears names of dead Black folks doesn’t strike me as someone who fears media attention. She wanted to pay the fee to protect herself from answering questions about her game. Ridiculous.

Clearly you don’t follow her or have ever heard her in a press conference. She has no problems answering questions about her GAME! You think a player who has beaten Serena Williams has trouble answering questions about her game? You sound the the journalists she was talking about. Ridiculous. She doesn’t have to pay for protection from questions about her GAME because she wins. GTFOH.

DP. Her sister said she didn’t want to answer questions about whether she could win on clay because it might cause her to doubt herself. That is in fact a question about her game.

+1. Her first tweet[b] about this said she didn't want them to get in her head about her game. So you're just wrong PP. She does in fact have problems answering questions about her GAME, which is why I'm having a problem with this.

Again you guys don’t follow her and only reading the hype. She was willing to do the press, she didn’t want to do it on game days or right after matches. Many times on her IG live she said that she had panic attacks after matches even when she won. All of this started after winning the US Open in 2018. Listen to what Naomi said, not what her sister said.

SHE said it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTA is not a HS sport where your doctor can excuse you from PE!

Medical exemptions in pro and Olympic sports is nothing new.

Keep up, read a book.

But, she didn't ask for it, did she? Not with a medical exemption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But the tournaments do want ratings. The fewer interviews, the fewer people know the major players or pay attention to the matches. The players won’t be happy with the long-term effects of such a move.

They can do interviews but not on game day.

People are most interested in athletes on game days. That’s when they have eyeballs on them. It’s their play on game days that makes them rich and famous.

This could be directly from a Cheryl Sandberg book. If a part of a job is unfair or emotionally exhausting, you shouldn't have to put up with it for a paycheck. At the very least, you can work with your boss to try and reach some sort of compromise.

Change happens when someone who has power within the system starts to demand it. Facebook didn't have parking spaces for pregnant women reserved close to the office front doors - they had to walk across a giant parking lot. Nobody had brought it up before because they weren't in positions to change it (or they did and weren't listened to). Cheryl realized this was an issue when she was pregnant, brought it up, and they put in the reserved spots. Naomi is raising the issue because she can.

People know the major tennis players through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and by watching them...play tennis. Nothing interesting ever comes out of the interviews, except for exhausted athletes repeating themselves and answering the same tired questions. It's an old and boring model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Nobody watches tennis for the interviews. And the structure of media has changed since the pre-internet / social media days when athletes relied on TV and interviews to connect with fans. They don't need media outlets anymore, so journalists are whining. The current grand slam structure is clearly not running very effectively, and yeah, Naomi could've played into it, but instead she used her clout to highlight a particular flaw of the system. More power to her.

Just because she can’t handle press interviews without it shaking her confidence doesn’t mean it’s a flaw in the system. She should probably talk to a sports psychologist if she lets press questions affect her so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She did this after winning the first round and was fined for refusing to appear at the subsequent international press conference. What do you all think of the sports requirement that athletes speak to media even when they’re uncomfortable?

I didn’t read any comments. Just wanted to support her. She is a great tennis player and very sensible person. Hope she will come back soon.