Some thoughts on the Naomi Osaka situation

Tennis is my favorite sport. I honestly believe that these are some of the best athletes to grace the planet. It's a truly global sport with top players hailing from all parts of the world. Although not quite equal, compensation for female tennis players is much closer to their male counterparts than in any other sport. Both the highest paid male athlete and the highest paid female athlete in the world are tennis players. Bottom line, it's a great sport that often doesn't get its due. Yet, tennis doesn't often make the headlines here in the US. Until yesterday that is...


some happier times (just a few days ago)

Naomi Osaka decided to withdraw from Roland Garros, a.k.a. The French Open, citing that it would be "the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being." This went on to be headlining news not only within the tennis community and media, but across all of the major sports talk shows and beyond. This rarely happens, and when it does it is generally for because of the results on the court but because of other reasons: think back to Djokovic's disqualification from the US Open in 2020, or Serena's on court coaching melee at the 2018 US Open (against Naomi Osaka by the way)...

For those that didn't quite follow this most recent saga, here is the quick recap of what happened. On May 26 Naomi Osaka tweeted that she would not be doing any press during Roland Garros. This is a major issue as top level athletes are expected to meet with the media at certain times during a major tournament such as this. There was some confusion as to what would happen next. Well we didn't have to wait very long. On Sunday, May 30, Naomi won her opening round match and true to form, she didn't meet with the press. She was swiftly fined $15,000 (chump change for the aforementioned highest paid female athlete of all time). That may have been the end of it until the four major tournaments quickly banded together to issue a statement that Naomi would face stiffer fines (more chump change) and could potentially be kicked out of the tournament altogether should she continue to shun the media. Less than a day later came Naomi's official withdrawal and statement that she needs to take care of herself and her mental state. 

As a tennis fanatic I've been asked quite a bit about what I think about this situation. Well here are some thoughts (in no particular order):
  • Media obligations are part of being a top athlete and a large reason why they get paid so handsomely. So even though most abhor this task, they have to do it and can answer the questions however they would like (from serious answers, to humor, from no answers to simply spewing banalities);
  • The fines for non participation are fine (pun intended), the swift decision to possibly throwing her out of the tournament was a bit hasty and premature;
  • Naomi needs to take as much time off as she needs in order to come back as strong as she possibly can. Depending on how serious her mental issues are, she cannot half ass this recovery or else she risks a potential relapse which would be no bueno;
  • There is a non-zero chance that this could seriously derail what was otherwise looking like a potential all time great career;
  • The tournaments, players and media need to get together to figure out an adequate solution to this mess. The other major sports all tend to be team efforts where coaches, other players and owners can shield some of the media obligations. Tennis players are by and large single entities that have to take care of all of this alone. Some dispensation/alternative solution should be created to help these players;
  • Tennis is as much mental as it is physical. The top players are all phenomenal ball strikers. What often separates the top players from those on the lower rungs is the 6 inches between the ears. If I was a 20 year old student in college, sports psychology would be a field that I would look to enter. The tennis industrial complex needs to invest serious money and human capital in this area.
Bottom line: Although this is obviously a shame, overall it could be a catalyst for positive change. As they say, Change means movement and movement means friction. Possibly we are going to get to a place where these athletes are better off once this is taken care of.

I am sure that there are many other areas that could be covered here, but those are the key points that have come to me over the past 24 hours since the news of Naomi's withdrawal hit my newsfeed. Do you have any thoughts? 


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