“I used to weigh my entire existence on if I won or lost a tennis match. That’s just not how I feel any more,” explained Naomi Osaka shortly after her victory over Serena Williams at the Australian Open in February. The 23-year-old tennis player had found a new assuredness in her on-court performance but, as she explained to the gathered journalists, the pandemic and the “quarantine process” that preceded each fixture had “put a lot into perspective”. After spending years crushing her backhand and obsessing over her serve, the world’s highest-paid female athlete had realised there might be more to life.
One wonders whether the same self-realisation also informed Osaka’s decision to quit the French Open earlier this week. Having determined that doing interviews before matches aggravates her anxiety and depression, a condition she has discussed freely in the past, last week Osaka announced that she would not be taking part in any press conferences during the tournament. On Monday, and following a statement by the leaders of the four Grand Slam tournaments that threatened Osaka with “more substantial fines and future Grand Slam suspensions” for eschewing interviews that are considered a contractual obligation, Osaka announced that she was dropping out of the French Open, and taking time out from the game.
