Sam Amico
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Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the French Open, citing a “bout of depression” as the reason.
“The best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris,” she tweeted. “I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer.”
Osaka, 23, was fined $15,000 on Sunday after she refused to take part in a mandatory news conference following her first-round victory. She was also threatened with disqualification if she failed to show up for future press conferences again.
“The truth is I have suffered bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” Osaka said in her statement released Monday. “…In Paris, I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences.
“I announced it preemptively because I do feel like the rules are quite out-dated in parts and I wanted to highlight that.”
The official French Open Twitter account threw some shade in Osaka’s direction after her stunt Sunday.
Osaka is the world’s highest-earning female athlete, compiling a whopping $37.4 million in 2020. But OutKick’s Greg Couch recently wrote that she’s needs to drop the diva routine.
“Osaka didn’t say that she’s having a mental health issue. What she said was that the media are perpetuating mental health issues in athletes. She took it on as a cause,” Couch wrote in a separate column. “This is bigger than a typical blame-the-media issue.”
Osaka is ranked second in the world in women’s singles, behind only Australia’s Ashleigh Barty.
Snowflake anybody? I could be wrong, but it sure seems like it
Have fun laying in the bed you made for yourself, Osaka.
You have no one to blame but yourself.
No empathy from me.
I served our country for 20 years in the enlisted ranks and had to deal with much tougher life circumstances than questions from a media contingent.
You hit a yellow ball back and forth across an 80 foot court while making millions doing it.
Boo freaking Hoo.
This is hilarious. The wokes are walking out of everything. Maybe bron bron will quit next.
Yeah this is BS. She just doesn’t want to do the media part and is just looking for an excuse to get put of it. The use of the nonsense phrase “self care” tells you this is contrived.
Hopefully this is the beginning of a wave of woke, pathetic athletes just walking away. Man that would be sweet.
Didn’t want to “face” The Media? More like “Didn’t want to deal with 90 minutes of insipid and witless questioning.”
No winners here. While I am not a fan of athletes pretending their lives are hard, I have even less sympathy for requirements that anyone…ANYONE talk to the media ever. Society>Athletes>Media>Refs>League Officials.
She should have called Marshawn Lynch.
The NFL should never have let Lynch do that. Heck, Pete Carroll should have laid down the law.
So she has zero problem performing at the highest of her abilities live in front of thousands of fans, and speaking to them at times. But she has anxiety when talking to the dozen or so folks in the press pool? Bullshit, it’s just easier to make herself a victim than clean up the mess she made.
Buh-bye
She will accuse officials of the French Open of racism.
She’s been Americanized with the wokeness of taking her ball and going home when things get “tough”. She will beg to come back in a few months when the money starts drying up.