Naomi Osaka, the world's No. 2 tennis star, announced Monday she was withdrawing from the French Open amid controversy over her decision to not participate in press conferences at the tournament.
The big picture: Osaka announced last week that she would skip the news conferences, saying, "I've often felt that people have no regard for athletes mental health and this rings very true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one." She was fined $15,000 by Roland Garros on Sunday for declining to participate in a mandatory news conference.
What she's saying: "This isn't a situation I ever imagined or intended when I posted a few days ago. I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris," Osaka wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.
- "I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. More importantly I would never trivialize mental health or use the term lightly," she added.
- "The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that."
- "Though the tennis press has always been kind to me (and I wanna apologize especially to all the cool journalists who I may have hurt, I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the world's media."
- "So here in Paris I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences."
Go deeper: Naomi Osaka explains message behind mask names after U.S. Open title win
