Naomi Osaka withdraws from French Open after being fined $15,000

Japanese tennis champion and four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka has just been slapped with a $15,000 fine from French Open tournament organizers Roland Garros for not participating in mandatory post-match press conferences. Just a day after she won her first-round match over Patricia Maria Tig in straight sets, Roland Garros have also said there could be "more substantial fines and future Grand Slam suspensions."

At first, Naomi reacted to the fine in a subtle way, tweeting, “anger is a lack of understanding. change makes people uncomfortable.”

Now, Osaka has withdrawn from the French Open and is taking time away from tennis to focus on her mental health.

“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 on her Twitter account Monday.

“I’m gonna 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,” she added.

She said it was never her intention to become a distraction and that she's been battling depression since the 2018 U.S. Open.

“I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer,” Osaka wrote. “More importantly I would never trivialize mental health or use that term lightly.”

Osaka said that she was already feeling vulnerable and anxious in Paris so she thought it was "better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences." 

The tennis champ also revealed that she wrote privately to the tournament apologizing for skipping the press conference and said that she would be "more than happy to speak with them after the tournament as the Slams are intense."

Last week before the matches began, Naomi took to social media to post a lengthy statement about her decision to refrain from any press conferences citing mental health concerns.

“Hey everyone – Hope you’re all doing well, I’m writing this to say I’m not going to do any press during Roland Garros,” her statement began. “I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athlete’s mental health and this rings very true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one. We’re often sat there and asked questions that we’ve been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.”

“I’ve watched many clips of athletes breaking down after a loss in the press room and I know you have as well. I believe that [the] whole situation is kicking a person while they’re down and I don’t understand the reasoning behind it,” Naomi continued. “Me not doing press is nothing personal to the tournament and a couple journalists have interviewed me since I was young so I have a friendly relationship with most of them.”

Naomi concluded, “However, if the organizations think that they can just keep saying, ‘do press or you’re gonna be fined’, and continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that are the centerpiece of their cooperation then I just gotta laugh. Anyways, I hope the considerable amount that I get fined for this will go towards a mental health charity.”

Organizers have not revealed if her $15,000 will go to charity, but they are reportedly frustrated in the situation, saying that the French Open management team have “tried unsuccessfully to speak with her to check on her well-being, understand the specifics of her issue and what might be done to address it on site.”

The leaders of the Grand Slam tennis events wrote in a statement obtained by The New York Times:

"We want to underline that rules are in place to ensure all players are treated exactly the same, no matter their stature, beliefs or achievement. As a sport there is nothing more important than ensuring no player has an unfair advantage over another, which unfortunately is the case in this situation if one player refuses to dedicate time to participate in media commitments while the others all honour their commitments."

"We individually and collectively have significant resources dedicated to player well-being. In order to continue to improve, however, we need engagement from the players to understand their perspective and find ways to improve their experiences."

The statement also emphasized the importance of athletes speaking to the media, writing that the media availability "allow both the players and the media to share their perspective and for the players to tell their story. The facilitation of media to a broad array of channels, both traditional and digital, is a major contributor to the development and growth of our sport and the fan base of individual players."

Previously, other top-tier players like Andre Agassi, Novak Djokovic, and Venus and Serena Williams have skipped news conferences (due to many reasons including devastating defeats) and been fined. However, Naomi is the first instance of a top player announcing in advance her intention to never participate in press conferences during a Grand Slam tournament.

Naomi is the world’s highest-paid female athlete, earning more than $37 million, mostly through sponsorships, like this inspiring Levi’s campaign, or taking on the brand ambassadorship for Louis Vuitton. Previously, she joined forces with Strathberry to release her own line of limited-edition handbags. She also collab’d with Japanese label ADEAM for NY Fashion Week. She also knows how to wield her fashion for social justice, as she did during the 2020 US Open women’s singles final (which she won), where she donned a different face mask every match that featured the name of a Black person killed without justice.

Naomi, who is just 23, has four Grand Slam titles to her name, winning the Australian Open earlier this year, plus the 2018 and 2020 U.S. Open. She previously won the Australian Open in 2019. She has never lost a major final.

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