Over the Heroes Don’t Wear Capes, They Wear Dog Tags & combat boots T-Shirt Furthermore, I will do this past few days, the French Open has been overshadowed by a heated debate around the obligations of its players to engage with the media. On Wednesday, following Naomi Osaka’s victory over the Romanian player Patricia Maria Tig, the Japanese-American champion and current world number two completed her courtside post-match interview, but chose not to attend the post-match press conference. This lead to a $15,000 fine, and a forceful rebuke from the league of Grand Slam tournaments that make up the most esteemed—and ultimately highest-paying—bodies within the world of tennis. While many questioned the reasoning behind this decision at the time, today Osaka announced her withdrawal from this year’s French Open altogether. “I think 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 to Twitter. The decision, as Osaka explained in her post, was a measure to look after her mental health. “The truth is I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” Osaka wrote. “Though the tennis press has always been kind to me (and I want to apologize 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. I get really nervous and find it stressful to always try to engage and give you the best answers I can.”Osaka’s statement attracted praise from many of her peers and spotlighted a hypocrisy that exists within many corners of the sporting world. While players with physical injuries are always allocated the necessary time to recover, the stigma surrounding mental health means that many stay silent about their suffering. For an athlete of Osaka’s stature to speak up about the impact of mental health on conducting a career as a professional athlete—and delivered with a maturity and insight far beyond her years—is more powerful than it might initially seem.“I’m going to take some time away from the court now, but when the time is right I really want to work with the Tour to discuss ways we can make things better for the players, press, and fans,” Osaka concluded. And if Osaka’s prior work as an activist, from honoring Black victims of police brutality to advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and equal pay for women in sport is anything to go by, you can be sure she’ll be back next season with a solution—and shooting straight back to the top of the leaderboard again.
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A mere eight months after last year’s COVID-delayed installment, the Heroes Don’t Wear Capes, They Wear Dog Tags & combat boots T-Shirt Furthermore, I will do this 2021 French Open tennis tournament kicks off today at Roland Garros with a limited number of (tested and/or vaccinated) fans and—at the beginning, at least—no fans at night sessions due to a COVID curfew. Here’s who—and what—to keep an eye on:Naomi Osaka has been all over the news lately after stating that she’s done with post-match press conferences—she considers them detrimental to players’ mental health—and will face whatever fines are levied on her for doing so. It’s a stance that has garnered both widespread acclaim—for shining a light on a system, or a custom, badly in need of reform—and some difference of opinion voiced by several players, including Rafael Nadal, who noted that without the press, players like himself wouldn’t be nearly as well-known around the world.Let’s put that aside, though, and restrict our focus, for the time being, to on-court matters. Clay—the surface upon which the French is played—is, simply, not Osaka’s favorite surface. Though she’s the reigning US Open and Australian Open champion, and boasts two other Slam titles, none of them were on clay. And while no one would want to count out the second-ranked woman in the world, her battle here would seem to be an uphill one—though she may not face a formidable opponent until 6-seeded Bianca Andreescu in the quarterfinals or 3rd-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the semis.Serena Williams? She’s—maddeningly—still looking to tie Margaret Court’s longtime record of 24 Grand Slam titles, and with her only recent outings resulting in a first- and a second-round loss to relatively unheralded players, it wouldn’t seem like she’d be a title threat. She could face a challenge from 26th seed Angelique Kerber as early as the third round, with Sabalenka, Osaka, and 1st-seeded Ash Barty still potentially in-between her and a title. It’s a high mountain to climb. Again, though: Would you want to bet against Serena?2019 champion Barty—who opted out of last year’s delayed tourney—has been back with a vengeance, winning Miami and Stuttgart and making the finals in Madrid. But if she stumbles early and Osaka makes a deep run, Osaka becomes the world’s number-one-ranked player. (Barty would likely have to defeat Coco Gauff and rising American Jen Brady en route to a final appearance.) In short, there’s a lot at stake for both players here.Bold prediction: Watch Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, seeded third. Aside from seeming to peak at the right time—she just beat Barty in the finals in Madrid—she’s got the kind of draw that would seem to favor her (provided she can get past Victoria Azarenka, Madison Keys, Serena, and Petra Kvitova—no easy feat). Sabalenka plays hard, goes for the big points, and is generally a gutsy joy to watch—provided she doesn’t get in her own way with unforced errors.As for the men—well, that’s easy. There’s one big story here: Can Rafael Nadal win a record 14th French title—thus passing Roger Federer for a record-breaking 21 Grand Slams? Nothing, of course, is guaranteed in a gruelling, two-week-long best-of-five-sets slugfest on clay—but if one single thing were guaranteed, it would likely be that Nadal would take home another title. He seems to dispatch even younger, fitter rivals like Novak Djokovic, with ease. (Rafa is 13-0 in French finals—but also 13-0 in French semifinals.) Due to an odd draw though, Rafa—because he’s ranked a “lowly” third in the world—is, bafflingly, seeded third at a tournament that he virtually owns, meaning that Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer, aka the Big Three of tennis, are all on the same side of the draw. With Federer still rediscovering his form, particularly on clay, look for Nadal vs. Djokovic in the semifinals. (Need a spoiler—or simply a rising phenom to keep an eye on? Look to 18th-with-a-bullet seed Jannik Sinner from Italy, who made it as far as the quarterfinals last year, to put a scare in a few steps this year.)As for that other half of the men’s draw? It’s the future of men’s tennis, or the next Big Three, or something: Zverev, Thiem, the on-a-roll Sebastian Korda—and Stefanos Tsitsipas. The only player Tsitsipas has to worry about in his quarter of the draw would seem to be second-seeded Daniil Medvedev, who’s been, diplomatically speaking, less than stellar on clay lately.So let’s call it right here and now: Nadal defeats Tsitsipas in four tough sets, becomes—on paper at least—the Greatest Of All Time… and all eyes then turn to Wimbledon, which just so happens to be Federer’s favorite Slam.And we’re off to the races. Enjoy the tennis.
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