Naomi Osaka pulls out of French Open 2021: I by no means needed to be a distraction

Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka shocked the whole tennis fraternity on Monday night time as she pulled out of the French Open 2021 in Paris after going through flak from all quarters for boycotting the media at Roland Garros.The Japanese world quantity 2 had defeated Romanian Patricia Maria Tig 6-4 7-6(4) within the ladies’s singles first spherical on Sunday and was fined $15,000 for failing to point out up for the post-match press convention.Osaka mentioned earlier than the French Open that she wouldn’t take part within the obligatory media interviews after her matches at Roland Garros, citing psychological well being issues. The board of Grand Slam tournaments even tried to interact with Osaka to grasp a bit extra about her stance however the highest paid feminine athlete on the planet refused to cooperate with them.Osaka was scheduled to face one other Romanian, Ana Bogdan, within the second spherical on June 2.OSAKA’S STATEMENTpic.twitter.com/LN2ANnoAYD— NaomiOsaka (@naomiosaka) May 31, 2021
The 23-year-old launched a press release on Twitter asserting her choice to stop the match.”Hey everyone, this isn’t a situation I ever imagined or intended when I posted a few days ago. I think now 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.”I by no means needed to be a distraction. I settle for that my timing was not superb and my message may have been clearer. More importantly, I might by no means trivialize psychological well being or use the time period frivolously.”The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m introverted, and anyone that’s seen me at tournaments will notice that I’m often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety.”Though the tennis press has all the time been variety to me (and I wanna apologize particularly to all of the cool journalists who I could have damage), I’m not a pure public speaker and get large waves of hysteria earlier than I communicate to the world’s media. I get actually nervous and discover it disturbing to all the time attempt to have interaction and provide the greatest solutions I can.”So here 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 pre-emptively because I do feel like the rules are quite outdated in parts and I wanted to highlight that.”I wrote privately to the match apologising and saying that I might be very happy to talk with them after the match because the Slams are intense. I’m gonna take a while away from the court docket now, however when the time is true I actually wish to work with the Tour to debate methods we are able to make issues higher for the gamers, press and followers. Anyways hope you’re all doing properly and staying protected, love you guys. I’ll see you once I see you.”