Naomi Francois Osaka, an American citizen representing Japan, is one of the highest paid female athletes ever. At age 27, she still acts like a brat at an Under-12 tournament, not the national hero who represented Japan while lighting the Olympic flame at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Her conduct in the Montreal final offended many fans and Japanese who value respect, sportsmanship, bushido spirit and “gaman” perseverance.
She blew an early lead against an 18-year old qualifier, Victoria Mboko, who struggled with double faults and a taped wrist. Naomi threw tantrums throughout the second and third sets and wildly misplayed shots into the net or far beyond the lines. Instead of making Mboko earn her maiden WTA title, Naomi didn’t even bother to cover Mboko’s valiant return of her lackadaisical drop shot.
She then “forgot” to congratulate Mboko during her brief “thank you” speech. She also skipped the press conference, which has become a feature (not a bug) of her relations with media.
Will the WTA sanction this conduct? Imagine an ATP player failing to compete during a Masters 1000 final and then snubbing the ceremony and presser.
This baffling behavior has become normal for Naomi, and it should raise questions about her integrity and whether performance enhancing drugs played any part in her victories in four grand slam finals under much more pressure than what she faced in Montreal.
Early in her career, she played along with a hoax, created by freelance media activist Ben Rothenberg and WTA personnel such as Courtney Nguyen, that she was somehow “from Japan” and couldn’t really express herself in English. In fact, she was an introvert (fluent in American English) who moved with her Haitian father and Japanese mother to USA at age 3, and grew up among Haitian relatives in New York and Florida. At press conferences, she would somehow understand Japanese journalists’ questions in Japanese but only answer in English.
After winning the US Open in September 2018 and the Australian Open in January 2019, she received millions from Yonex, Nike, Nissan, Nissin, All Nippon Airways and others to endorse their products and represent their brands and corporate image. But then she fell into a slump and lost her number one ranking, held for 20 weeks.
A downcast Osaka couldn’t even complete her press conference at Wimbledon in July 2019 after bowing out first round to Yulia Putintseva, ranked number 43. Normally quirky, Naomi struggled to find words and fell into the dark mood that often casts a shadow over her on court.
She fought back tears when a journalist noted that her slump followed her sacking of coach Sascha Bajin after rising to number one with him. “I don’t think it’s related at all,” she said. “I wouldn’t blame my age. I’ve done a lot of good things, I’ve done a lot of bad things. I’m not the type of person that could say I can get away with things because I’m young.”
When asked about handling pressure, she said, unconvincingly: “The key for me was just like having fun. Kinda taking the pressure off myself. I hope I can somehow find a way to do that.”
But when a BBC reporter asked how she was coping with her newfound fame, she asked a tournament media manager “Can I leave? I feel like I’m about to cry.” She then walked out of the press room, frustrating dozens of Japanese journalists who fly around the world to cover her.
At that time, Grand Slam Magazine (accredited at Wimbledon) defended Naomi and wrote that she just needed more time to grow up. https://grandslammagazine.com/2019/07/10/naomi-osaka-needs-time-to-grow-up/
But this didn’t happen over the next six years.
During the pandemic in 2020, she refused to play the Cincinnati semi-final. She cited “racial injustice” and called tennis a “majority white sport”. “Before I am an athlete, I am a black woman,” she said, months before representing Japan at the Olympic Games. Amid riots across the United States in the summer of 2020, her comments basically forced the tournament to cancel all play for a day. Lest they be accused of racism, organizers allowed her to re-enter the semi-final, which she won. How did she thank the organizers? She withdrew from the final, citing a “hamstring injury”. A few weeks later, she came from behind to beat Victoria Azarenka in the US Open final. She then won the Australian Open (her fourth slam) but later fell into a funk lasting three years, blaming it on the “hamstring injury”, “depression” and various other reasons.
Osaka isn’t the only WTA player to rocket up and down the rankings. Sloane Stephens, after winning the US Open in 2017, barely competed for another year. Simona Halep, after winning her first major at the French Open, enjoyed a heroes welcome in Romania and then took an extended paid vacation, showing up at tournaments only to lose right away. Genie Bouchard, the darling of the circuit after reaching the 2104 Wimbledon final, never played another final at any tournament. She sued the United States Tennis Association for “negligence” in connection with an alleged mishap in a locker room after a US Open doubles match with Nick Kyrgios.
Many would like to forgive Naomi’s conduct due to mental health challenges, which many players face. But that is no excuse for failing to compete during a WTA 1000 final at a packed stadium in Montreal. That is no excuse for “forgetting” to congratulate Mboko — who previously called Naomi her idol. Once known for her composure under pressure, Naomi now has a reputation as a “sore loser”, and it’s likely her sponsors will take notice.
(words and image copyright Christopher Johnson Globalite Media, all rights reserved)
Grand Slam Magazine 