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Naomi Osaka’s Crying Out For Help and No one’s Listening…
My two cents
Naomi Osaka is easily the most accomplished tennis players of her generation. At 24, she has won 4 grandslam titles along with several other titles on the circuit.
Unlike the great female tennis heroines of the past, she has never been afraid to nail her colours to the mast on issues of race, gender, the ever intrusive media and mental health.
Last year, she made the all important decision to step back from the game to look after her health. And she was unequivocal on her reasons for doing so:
I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes’ mental health and this rings 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
As expected, the attack dogs from the media weren’t sympathetic, which confirmed everything she said.
That was then and she went back to playing tennis.
But something happened a few days ago. Our protagonist tweeted something explosive: