tennis

Osaka must find 'safe space' to overcome issues, says Evert

17 Comments
By Martyn Herman

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17 Comments
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Osaka manipulated the press with her name masks during tournaments. She brought attention to herself and tried to move the media attention from tennis to her "activism."

One mask had the name of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by someone in self defense. A jury acquitted the defender of all charges in the incident.

So, it's fine for her to deflect from tennis, but the press shouldn't ask her non-tennis questions?

Osaka got what she wanted.

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Parts of this may not be 100% accurate @7:41am?:

“One mask had the name of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by someone in self defense. A jury acquitted the defender of all charges in the incident.” -

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

Her people, she will have a team of assistants and advisors, either advised her badly about the interview issue or she ignored them and handled it badly herself.

The players are all contracted to do the interviews on the tour. If she wanted special treatment, she should have worked behind the scenes toward some kind of compromise. Instead, we had her unilaterally refusing, resulting in an understandable backlash against her, and only then revealing she had mental health issues, resulting in an understandable backlash against the tournament. She then dropped out, compromising the tournament as a tennis contest and leaving a bad taste.

The guy who was former head of the press office at the French Open tennis tournament is a regular on "The Cycling Podcast" which I listen to sometimes, and he said basically the same thing. He described the contracts they sign about doing press conferences in detail and said it was wrong to paint sports journalists as the enemy of sports stars. The relationship is fundamentally cooperative and not antagonistic.

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Parts of this may not be 100% accurate

It's accurate and truthful. Adding italicized "may" in your comment is a cheap, hit-and-run straw man.

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So, he's saying that Naomi-chan needs to find a corner to go cry in, isn't he?

Maybe, she should just give it up. We'll see.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

So, he's saying that Naomi-chan needs to find a corner to go cry in, isn't he?

Woops! It's she, NOT he.

Got my "gender pronouns" wrong there.

My bad.

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Forget about Wimbledon for a moment. It's the Olympics I'm thinking of. If she doesn't participate, you just know the Japanese medal counters will be furious with her. I'd say she should skip it if she's not ready.

Her people, she will have a team of assistants and advisors, either advised her badly about the interview issue or she ignored them and handled it badly herself.

They also need to help and advise her on many other things, like how to present herself in public. I don't know whether, as some other poster put it, it's down to lack of formal education and interaction with other kids, but she has to learn to talk properly and open her mouth and not mumble. And she really has to try and improve her Japanese skills. Most players representing non-Anglophone countries are, at the very least, bilingual or can do an interview in a second language. Just saying jiichan is not enough.

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Sorry, if You felt offended @PeterNeil 8:49am. It was not intended to question ‘Your credibility’ nor act as a ‘hit&run’ or ‘strawman’ comment (It’s been a busy day so, posting and answering immediately was not a priority). Naomi Osaka had her reasons for choosing that mask but, perhaps we can all agree: the “Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case” was ‘controversial’ in many respects, hence the choice of the word “may”. (Perhaps we can address it in a related issue later, less we both be deleted for ‘off-topic”.) Some here also could say this ‘side topic’ is a ‘strawman’ itself, diverting from her current ‘health issues’ being addressed in the article above.- Until next, Best Wishes.

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If someone cannot live up to their contract, they should be cut/fired. Period.

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It's accurate and truthful. Adding italicized "may" in your comment is a cheap, hit-and-run straw man.

It's fantasy and fear. Is it Kool-aid or cocktail your slurping up there? I get a kick out of reading the twists and turns you come up with. Pure pretzel action!! Keep up the good work.

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Sorry, if You felt offended @PeterNeil 8:49am. It was not intended to question ‘Your credibility’

I have questions.

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Federer can claim a physical ailment and Osaka claims a mental ailment but no one talks about Federer skipping press conference its all crickets but when it comes to Osaka the buzzing stops. Chris Everette said take 1.5 hrs to cool off and then come back and give the press an interview. LMFAO do she really think the press is going to wait around. If the athletes did that they will come back to an empty room!!!

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Federer is 39 years old and coming off two knee surgeries.

When did he skip a press conference after a match?

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So, he's saying that Naomi-chan needs to find a corner to go cry in, isn't he?

No, she's saying Osaka should get help from professionals to get back on track

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No Wimbledon for Naomi Osaka as I have been saying for a while. She has also said she does not think the Olympics are a good idea but her sponsors will put huge pressure on her to turn up.

Will probably lose early then head straight back home. She is causing a lot of important discussion. Mental health has been overlooked for too long.

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