FOUR-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION and current World No. 2 Naomi Osaka briefly left a press conference in Cincinnati on Monday (August 16) after she appeared to get upset with a line of questioning about her relationship with the media.
However, after the interruption, the Japanese tennis superstar returned to respond to the question. The 23-year-old had pulled out of the French Open after having refused to sit for press conferences to protect her mental health. During the press conference at Cincinnati Masters, she said she was "proud" of the stand she took in Paris.
It was Osaka's first press conference since the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome.
Osaka got upset after a reporter from a Cincinnati newspaper asked the 23-year-old: “You’re not crazy about dealing with us, especially in this format. Yet you have a lot of outside interests that are served by having a media platform. How do you balance the two?”
Osaka’s agent, Stuart Duguid, condemned the reporter’s line of questioning on Monday in a statement provided to Reuters.
“The bully at the Cincinnati Enquirer is the epitome of why player/media relations are so fraught right now,” said Duguid. “Everyone on that Zoom will agree that his tone was all wrong and his sole purpose was to intimidate. Really appalling behaviour.
“And this insinuation that Naomi owes her off-court success to the media is a myth – don't be so self-indulgent.”
The WTA provided some notable quotes from Osaka's press conference, which spanned the topics of her Tokyo 2020 experience, preparation for Cincinnati, and how she is feeling after her decision to withdraw from Roland Garros and Wimbledon due to mental health reasons.
On whether she is proud of herself after her decision to bring awareness to mental health this summer.
"I would say for me, in that moment I wasn't really proud. I felt like it was something I needed to do for myself. More than anything, I felt like I holed up in my house for a couple of weeks, and I was a little bit embarrassed to go out because I didn't know if people were looking at me in a different way than they usually did before.
"I think the biggest eye-opener was going to the Olympics and having other athletes come up to me and say that they were really glad that I did what I did. So after all that, yeah, I'm proud of what I did, and I think it was something that needed to be done."
On her experience at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where she became the first tennis player to light an Olympic torch and advanced to the third round in singles.
"The Tokyo Olympics, I have kind of been waiting for them for eight years almost, because I didn't make it to the Rio one. I felt like everyone kept asking me about the Tokyo Olympics I guess every year from that point.
"So I feel very sad about how I did there, but also a little bit happy I didn't lose in the first round, as well, because I haven't played in a minute. Even the circumstances that it was held in, I was really glad to be able to experience all that. And lighting the torch and stuff like that, it was fun for me. I definitely think it will be like a really big memory for me.
"I feel like definitely [lighting the torch is] a moment that I'll be the proudest of myself. I think my ojiisan was probably yelling at his TV when it happened. It was definitely surreal. I had to do a rehearsal the night before, but it felt very top secret. I didn't know I was the first tennis player to carry the torch, but definitely that's something that I'll remember in my heart."
On whether she has spoken to USA Gymnastics star Simone Biles, who withdrew from a number of events at the Tokyo Olympics due to mental health concerns.
"I sent her a message, but I also want to give her space because I know how overwhelming it can feel."
On what journalists can do to make the press conference experience better for athletes after difficult losses and difficult moments.
"I'm pretty open when it comes to press conferences. I feel like I have been that way my whole life. There are times where I would say there are people that I don't know that well that ask me really, really sensitive questions, and then especially after a loss [it] kind of amplifies a bit. So I would say even repetitive questions, like questions we have been asked before, but maybe you guys weren't there at the previous press conference, just like maybe read transcripts.
"I'm not a professional in press conferences or anything, but, yeah, just to make it a bit more of a friendlier experience, I would say."
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