![]() ![]() It’s not hard to see how Osaka’s choice to opt out of the Grand Slam tour’s media requirements - players are contractually obligated to participate in post-match press conferences - would irk a group that’s already very sensitive to being irked.īut Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open did more than ruffle feathers. The president of the French Tennis Federation suggested Williams was disrespecting the game. Williams said she had been wearing the custom-designed bodysuit to help with circulation and prevent potentially fatal blood clots, which she had a history with, and which she’d experienced after giving birth to her daughter the year before the tournament. The French Open’s rigid response to Osaka was somewhat familiar to tennis fans who watched its organizing body, the French Tennis Federation, arbitrarily ban Serena Williams from wearing a catsuit during her French Open matches in 2018. Osaka accepted that she’d be penalized for declining to appear before the media, and said she would pay the “considerable amount I get fined for this” out of pocket. “We’re often sat there and asked questions we’ve been asked multiple times before and questions that bring doubt into our minds,” she wrote on Twitter. Prior to the French Open - the second of the four Grand Slam tournaments, which wrapped up last weekend - Osaka had said she wouldn’t participate in mandatory press conferences because she wanted to preserve her mental health. (She said she will, for now, play in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.) In the weeks that followed, she would withdraw from her second consecutive Grand Slam, Wimbledon, citing plans to take some personal time with friends and family. 2-ranked women’s tennis player in the world and four-time Grand Slam champion, breezed through her first-round match and then withdrew from the tournament before her second round of play. The story that eclipsed all others was that Naomi Osaka walked away. ![]() The biggest story at the 2021 French Open wasn’t who won. ![]()
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