‘Simply not true’: Naomi Osaka accused of cover-up as she defends boycott

Billie Jean King has spoken out against Naomi Osaka’s media boycott, but the highest paid female athlete has doubled down on her stance.

Naomi Osaka rarely makes missteps.

Tennis icon Billie Jean King has joined the chorus of players lining up against Naomi Osaka’s media boycott, saying it is part of her job to speak to the media.

King, who has won 39 Grand Slam titles, tweeted that she was “torn” on the issue but that without the media Osaka wouldn’t be the highest paid female athlete of all time.

“I fully admire and respect what Naomi is doing with her platform, so I am a little torn as I try to learn from both sides of the situation,” King said. “While it’s important that everyone has the right to speak their truth, I have always believed that as professional athletes we have a responsibility to make ourselves available to the media,” she said. “In our day, without the press, nobody would have known who we are or what we thought. There is no question they helped build and grow our sport to what it is today.’

“There is no question that the media needs to respect certain boundaries,” King said. “But at the end of the day, it is important that we respect each other and we are in this together.”

Billie Jean King says tennis players should speak to the media. Picture Jay Town

Osaka has firmly established herself as the face of tennis because her off-court activism matched her on-court success en route to becoming the richest athlete in women’s sport.

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But the decision to boycott press conferences at the French Open — citing a lack of care for athletes’ mental health — has split the tennis world as pundits clamoured to defend the media and fellow players distanced themselves from the world No. 2.

Ash Barty, Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek and Kei Nishikori were among top players who all said speaking to the press is part of the job, and the four grand slams took the sensational step of issuing a joint statement threatening to disqualify Osaka if she failed to meet her media commitments.

Patrick McEnroe, left, pictured with brother John McEnroe. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

Patrick McEnroe, who won doubles at the French Open in 1989, told Good Morning America this morning that Osaka deserves “a lot of credit” for highlighting issues like mental health but that as a professional tennis player she needed to honour her obligations.

“I think there may have been a few missteps along the way from Naomi and her team, at looking at how this was going to play out,” he said. “In the long term, you can’t have players just deciding to do whatever they want to do.

“She is a professional tennis player, she is an athlete so you have to abide by certain rules, one of which is speaking to the press on a regular basis,” he said.

Osaka however isn’t backing down from her position, tweeting that “anger is a lack of understanding. Change makes people uncomfortable”.

Ash Barty.

Spain's Rafael Nadal.

Her sister Mari, a former tennis pro herself, waded into the debate by saying doubts about her sibling’s ability to perform on clay courts — some prompted by family members — were behind the decision to boycott the media. Mari said Osaka wanted to “block everything out” and not talk to “people who is (sic) going to put doubt in her mind”.

“She’s protecting her mind hence why it’s called mental health,” Mari added.

However, she quickly deleted her post and apologised after it sparked a huge backlash, with people questioning why Osaka was talking about mental health when it seemed she was looking to avoid criticism about her performances.

Press conference boycott hiding something deeper?

Used to being universally loved, Osaka has come under fire for raising the broader topic of “mental health” for what many experts believe is a personal insecurity about her form and poor record on clay.

Former breakfast TV host Piers Morgan had no time for subtlety, tweeting: “Get over yourself, @naomiosaka – playing the mental health card to avoid legitimate media scrutiny is pathetic.”

Get over yourself, @naomiosaka - playing the mental health card to avoid legitimate media scrutiny is pathetic. https://t.co/0rCCusr6P8

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) May 30, 2021

Osaka has never made it past the third round in Paris and has only won a single match from two tournaments this clay court season.

Tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg outlined this perspective on the No Challenges Remaining podcast, suggesting Osaka’s targeting of those two words “mental health” has put her in a tricky spot.

“The crux of this complaint is very much results orientated. It’s really talking about the tennis side of the equation and having to come and talk about a loss … that is what she finds so galling,” Rothenberg said.

“My first thought when I read this (Osaka’s statement) was, ‘Wow, she must be so low on confidence going into the French Open’. She’s envisaging what the loss is going to be like there, or bracing herself for a loss rather than going out and winning a third grand slam in a row.

“She’s not feeling it going into this French Open, she’s not feeling up to it.”

Speaking about Osaka’s specific reference to people in the media having “no regard for athletes’ mental health”, Rothenberg cast doubt over the legitimacy of her claim.

“To me that just does not ring genuine about what Naomi Osaka’s press conference experience has been,” he said.

“Her chosen career of being an elite, grand slam champion level athlete is going to be high pressure and it’s going to be tough … you have to embrace both sides of that as part of the gig. It’s just part of the gig.

“I don’t totally think that’s what’s really going on here. If you’re in this position where you’re taking losses so badly that a couple of questions about having lost are really going to set you off in some harmful way, then why are you taking the court at a grand slam and putting yourself on the line in that sort of arena, in that battlefield, if you really are feeling that vulnerable or that fragile or that unwell?

“This blanket use of the term ‘mental health’ doesn’t totally fit what I think she’s actually trying to say here.

“She’s trying to say, ‘I want to stop doubts about my athletic performance’. I don’t think that’s mental health, I think that's being an athlete, honestly.”

Osaka has hit a slump in the middle of the year.

Like Rothenberg, tennis analyst Matt Roberts also suggested Osaka’s protest has more to do with her lack of self-confidence at this stage of the season than anything else.

“What I think the statement she put out is suggesting is this is more of an Osaka problem than a press problem, necessarily,” Roberts told The Tennis Podcast.

“It felt to me this was coming from a deeply personal place and it seemed not a coincidence now that she released this statement on the heels of some poor form, going into Roland Garros where she is struggling a bit on the clay, she is fielding more questions about her performance than at other times in her career.

“That to me seems like problems top athletes go through and I don’t think not going to press is the solution there.”

Journalist Tumaini Carayol was surprised by Osaka’s stance given she is “right at the top of players who’ve had it easiest” when it comes to being grilled by the press.

“The vibe in her press conferences is generally as good as it gets, compared to how it can be with other players,” Carayol told No Challenges Remaining.

“I just don’t really buy that people doubt (her) after all we’ve seen that she’s done on the court.

“It really is difficult to wrap my head around that of all people, this is from Osaka.”

Rothenberg agreed, adding: “The other thing that needs to be mentioned here is Naomi Osaka has had some of the best and easiest time in press of anybody.

“She’s not somebody who has gotten anything close to … a raw deal from the media.”

‘Simply isn’t true’: Osaka’s explanation skewered

Tennis broadcaster Catherine Whitaker echoed Rothenberg in being put off by Osaka’s generalisation around “mental health” and defended the tennis media’s approach to questioning athletes.

“The statement that people have no regard for athletes’ mental health … that simply isn’t true,” Whitaker told The Tennis Podcast.

“Obviously some members of a press conference room have more regard than others but as a whole, as a sweeping generalisation, it is simply not true to say the press do not have regard for an athlete’s mental health.

“It is simply not true to sweepingly say there’s no regard for mental health.

“In that final paragraph (of Osaka’s statement) there’s another implication that the mental health of athletes is ignored. I resent that implication. It is simply not ignored.”

Whitaker sympathises with Osaka because it seems she’s struggling on a personal front, and said she hopes the four-time major winner is OK. She also welcomed an open dialogue between players and the press to learn “how both sides could be understood better”.

Whitaker acknowledged the important role Osaka has played in helping the media — and by virtue, tennis fans — understand the challenges players face at the elite level. She said maintaining open lines of communication between stars and the media is “absolutely welcome” but added: “This sweeping trashing of the tennis media and what they’re about is upsetting.

“This doesn’t feel considered to me. It feels like it’s coming from a very frail place, and I hope she’s OK.”

What annoyed Whitaker most was Osaka accepting she will be fined every time she doesn’t turn up to a press conference at Roland Garros, and saying in her statement she hopes “the considerable amount that I get fined for this will go towards a mental health charity”.

Her fines won’t go to charity because the money is funnelled into the Grand Slam Development Fund, which Whitaker says does a tremendous job in building up infrastructure and giving opportunities to players in less developed tennis nations.

“The implication there is, ‘I hope the fines go towards a good cause’, and fines do go towards a good cause,” Whitaker said.

Osaka has regularly struggled on clay. Picture: Julian Finney/Getty Images

Osaka can’t use personal battles to ‘change the whole system’

Tennis commentator David Law is another who hopes Osaka is OK but called her boycott a “misjudgment”.

“Just because she is struggling with it, doesn’t mean that you just change the whole system,” Law told The Tennis Podcast.

“In the statement she says ‘I will not be doubted’ or ‘I’m not going to let people doubt me’. Well I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is and you’ve got to find a way to come to terms with that because that’s part of being a professional tennis player.

“You can’t throw everything up in the air because it doesn’t suit you at that time and you’re feeling bad.

“It frustrates me as a member of the media and on behalf of so many of my colleagues when the result of this is you get so many people out there, who don’t know anything about it, just hammering the media again. It just frustrates me.”

Naomi still has plenty of support

However, not everyone disagrees with Osaka’s stand. Aussie tennis great turned commentator Rennae Stubbs commented on Osaka’s original statement, tweeting: “4 someone who now works in media & knows how important quotes & sound bites are, I was also a player, with feelings!

“This move from Naomi is really an amazing moment 4 the media to LISTEN to these players & understand how tough it is for many of them & to do better & get better!”

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres told Osaka she was “sending you so much love and support”.

British tennis player Naomi Broady said one solution may be not requiring players to speak to reporters within 30 minutes of their match, to give them more time to digest a tough result.

“If it was just more time after that big loss, so that you can compose yourself and digest and cry out of the spotlight,” she told the BBC last week.

“It’s difficult because it is also your opportunity to show your passion and your personality, but if it’s on an occasion when you are so upset it’s difficult that you’re almost forced by the rules to do it so quickly.”

British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith is right behind Osaka, saying: “This is so correct. I support this.

“I love that Naomi has the courage to do this and she is so right. The mental health of the athletes in these situations can’t be ignored.”

Former tennis player Zina Garrison and ex-F1 world champion Nico Rosberg were among other athletes to support Osaka on social media.

Osaka stayed true to her word by skipping the post-match press conference after beating world No. 63 Patricia Maria Tig in straight sets in her opening round clash at the French Open. She faces the unseeded Ana Bogdan in round two.