BarcelonaA year ago Naomi Osaka was at the top of world tennis. The Japanese won the Australian Open and was the world number one, but the player felt that something was wrong. “I wasn’t happy. I felt too much pressure, I was afraid of losing, I couldn’t concentrate,” he would explain later. In the middle of that season he started to avoid going to the post-match press conference, even though doing so meant having to pay a fine. “I understand journalists, but facing the questions scared me. I was afraid to cry,” said the player, who has spent all her life competing. Just when she was the great dominator of the circuit she said enough. Osaka would retire from the Roland Garros tournament and not go to Wimbledon because, he said, he had “mental health issues” that he wanted to improve on. The pressure had hurt him. “In fact, winning has hurt me, because you feel like you can’t lose anymore,” said the player, who was in charge of lighting the Olympic pitcher at the Tokyo Games.
At 24, Osaka has become the face of a new generation of athletes who have no problem admitting that sometimes they are not feeling well. Last season his decision to stop competing for a few months provoked a lot of reactions that supported him, although the world number 1 of the men’s circuit, Novak Djokovic, was not very empathetic saying that “when you want to be at best, you have to be able to withstand the pressure. ” Djokovic again defended the idea during the Tokyo Olympics, when American gymnast Simone Biles also stopped to prioritize mental health. In those Games, however, it was the Serb who ended up losing roles during the tournament and was eliminated while breaking his racket. The pressure affects everyone. Osaka, by the way, did not want to bleed or go back to Djokovic. And when asked about the deportation of the Serb from Australia for not being vaccinated, she simply said, “If I say my opinion, will it help? Will it change anything? I’d rather not say anything.” The Japanese, by the way, have also raised their voices against racism. The daughter of a Haitian and a Japanese woman, she suffered cases of racism in the United States, where she arrived young to train, and also in Japan, where it is debated whether an athlete should talk about politics, as the tennis player get heavily involved in the Black Lives Matter 2020 campaign by going out to play at the U.S. Open with masks with the names of Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin and George Floyd, African Americans murdered by police.
Badosa is already in the third round
After a very complicated 2021, Osaka is back in shape. In the first tournament of the season, also in Melbourne, he reached the semi-finals, when he retired due to a small discomfort. He did not want to force himself to prioritize the Australian Open, where he is looking for his fifth Grand Slam of the season. So far, he has passed the first two rounds without conceding a set. This morning, the American Madison Brengle saw Osaka take her off the track (6-0 and 6-4). In the women’s table, the big favorites are still unbeaten, especially the world number one, the Australian Ashleigh Barty, who eliminated Lucia Bronzetti (6-1 and 6-1). Catalan Paula Badosa is also in the third round of the Australian Open after beating Italian player Martina Trevisan (6-0, 6-3). Now she will face the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk. In the men’s team, Rafa Nadal did not suffer against the German Yannick Hanfmann (6-2, 6-3 and 6-4).
