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Almost three months after her media blackout at Roland Garros sparked a firestorm and debates over media and mental health, Naomi Osaka returned to the press conference stage for the first time on Monday.
She burst into tears.
The four-time Grand Slam champion spoke to reporters ahead of this week’s Western and Southern Open, where she pledged all of her tournament winnings to aid the earthquake in Haiti.
She was immediately asked about her relationship with the media by Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquirer, who prefaced his question by stating “you are not crazy to deal with us … but you have a lot of outside interests that are served by the made to have a platform media. ” He then asked, “How do you balance the two? “
“It’s interesting,” Osaka said after asking for clarification on what Daugherty meant by “I’m not crazy to deal with you guys.”
“… I would say the occasion, like when to do the press conference, is what strikes me the most difficult.”
She then paused to collect her thoughts.
“I’m actually very interested in this point of view,” she continued after the moderator asked her if she would like to move on. “For me, I feel like it’s something that I can’t really speak for everyone, I can only speak for myself. But since I was younger, I’ve had a lot of ‘media interest on me, and I think it’s because of my experience as well as the way I play.
“But I would also say, I don’t really know how to balance it too, I’m finding out along with you, I would say.”
As another reporter asked about tennis and its Haiti promise (3:45 a.m. above), Osaka started to cry. She then took a break from the podium before returning to answer more questions from reporters.
Osaka agent denounces “bully” journalist
After the press conference, Osaka agent Stuart Duguid criticized Daugherty in a statement while describing him as a “bully”.
“The Bully of the Cincinnati Enquirer is the epitome of why player / media relations are so strained right now,” said Duguid, by Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times. “Everyone on this Zoom will agree that his tone was all wrong and his only purpose was to intimidate. Really appalling behavior.
“And this insinuation that Naomi owes her success off the field to the media is a myth – don’t be so kind to yourself.”
Daugherty did not respond to Duguid’s criticisms.
Osaka ‘proud’ to take a stand after talking to other athletes
Osaka made brief appearances in media scrums following their matches at the Tokyo Olympics. But Monday marked the first time she had sat down for an official press conference since she criticized the format as taxing her sanity and that of other athletes.
Osaka told reporters on Monday that she was initially embarrassed when the uproar started, but was proud of her position after hearing support from other athletes at the Olympics.
“I would say for myself at that point that I wasn’t really proud,” Osaka said. “I felt like it was something I needed to do for myself more than anything. I felt like I was locking myself in my house for a few weeks, and I was a little embarrassed to go out because that I didn’t know if people looked at me in a different way than they usually did before.
“I think the biggest eye-opener was going to the Olympics and seeing other athletes come to me and tell me that they were really happy that I did what I did. So after all that, yes, I’m proud of what I did, and I think it was something that needed to be done. “
As the tournament’s No.2 seed, Osaka received a first round pass of the Western and Southern Open. She will open the game in the second round against the winner of Tuesday’s match between Coco Gauff and Hsieh Su-wei.
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