Not sure who’s behind the PR for the Tennis, and the French Open, but this looks like a massive issue that will keep growing, when a bit of common sense and future thinking could have sorted this with minimal fuss, and allowing more time for further discussions.

With the whole issue of mental health lately, and the push back in many sports to these contractual media events being so negative towards the people being interviewed you’d think it’d be the perfect time to have a rethink, but not for this one, and now they’ve pushed pretty much the face of female tennis of late into withdrawing due to the perceived pressure being put on her, even after stating she was doing this for her own welfare.

Will be an interesting time to see what happens, so many sports seem to have these post match media spots where it’s just a lot of daft questions to the winner, or negatively worded questions to the losers.

That’s disappointing – but understandable.
She was clear about her views and provided a sound explanation for them.
The tournament organisers have behaved poorly in failing to accommodate her legitimate and valid concerns.

French bureaucracy at its finest

Well if she has mental health issues (not saying she hasn’t) then maybe being in the media spot light is not the best therapy. These sporting events rely on income from the media circus that surrounds them, as does the athletes Sponsors and the significant team that supports them all of which require a decent salary to be paid. It’s as important as the sport itself so to separate the two is impossible and if you are not prepared to do both then you have no value to the organisation. Sounds like she needs to focus on bigger things than her tennis career. Hopefully she’ll deal with her mental health issues properly and come back a better player and a healthier person. Avoiding any issue you have in life is never the best approach.

Not surprisingly unilaterally deciding to sack off half your job and getting an advantage over fellow pros has consequences.

Symptom of sport becoming media driven. A sportsman/woman is as much a brand as an athlete. Seems a shame that we must be overlooking talent because they can’t face the brand exposure element.

For every 100 of these media interviews how much useful info and usable footage is generated? They are tedious in the extreme. Has anyone ever turned the telly on to watch one? Has any marketing bod ever wanted their brand associated with a knackered monosyllabic person with minimal charisma, because that’s not the quality that made them well known. The very personality traits that make them amazing a hitting balls are the very traits that make them deathly dull in conversation. Especially in solo sports. Clearly there are exceptions to the rule but it appears to me these dreadful media interviews, normally with the most turgid of journos asking banal questions are a waste of everyone’s time, not least the viewer.

Prioritising that waste of time over the health of a leading player asking not to have to do it feels bizarre.

Plenty of ways to build brand without the charade of post match / in tournament media interviews. So I doubt her sponsors will be too bothered. (Any good sponsor and media company would be able to use this positively. It’s about the tournament organiser and their sponsors and their combined ego.

Sadly I have very little sympathy with her. As an elite level athlete, part of her ‘job’ is dealing with the media. It is the same for all elite level athletes. Of course tennis is tougher because it is not a team sport. In addition she has signed contacts with her sponsors which will require her to be in front of the media. She was the highest paid female athlete in the world, some reckon the 5th paid best sports person.

As part of entry to the competition she is aware, it states the post-match commitments – and the fines that can be imposed for missing these commitments. If she does not want to to the media, then don’t enter.

If her mental health is not strong enough to cope, the is is strong enough to play tennis at the top level? Perhaps she shouldn’t be playing until she can cope. But then her sponsors would not be happy.

She can’t choose what she wants to do. Every single other competitor knows what is involved and has signed up to it.

She is an outstanding tennis player – but at the level she plays at, that is not enough.

The fine was pretty modest compared with what Wimbledon hands out for simply not trying hard enough:
https://www.gq.com.au/fitness/sport/the-biggest-fines-and-their-reasons-in-the-history-of-wimbledon/image-gallery/b4b4b92a222bd1efca94f3def755b0a5

When you enter a compettion you know the rules and the consequences of breaking them, on and off court. If you don’t like the rules then don’t enter.

I only had to look at the pseudos of the contributor to this thread to predict what their contributions would be.

Well, I think being a tennis genius doesn’t protect you from mental health issues, and if she says she suffers from extreme anxiety before press conferences, who are we to argue. As others have said, the press conferences are usually a waste of everyone’s time. It’ll be interesting to see how her sponsors react…I would hope they’ll be supportive.

I can agree with both sides…clearly I’ve never amounted to much so don’t have this issue first hand.

The way she has gone about it, I’ve very little sympathy as everyone being interviewed has to do the same, she seems to suggest she just doesn’t want to chat if/when she loses and doesn’t want to chat about stuff that isn’t just about her winning (understandable)…but at the level she is playing at, she has little choice as it seems to be contractually obligated. Hopefully the mental health issues can be resolved, but it won’t be an overnight thing…will take time and support.

At the same time, the organisation’s appear to be giving a consistent reasoning which doesn’t come across as looking to support the players, so instantly I can see why she has taken a stand.

You’d hope more would do the same but suspect the harsh reality of sponsorship means they can’t be as picky as we think – no sponsorship, no money or support so everything suffers.

Not looking good for either side, but as someone up there has said…it seems to be a media spectacle now which is why they are so entwined in contracts, etc.

Part of being an elite athlete is coping with stress, not losing your ability under pressure. Some athletes would no doubt perform better with no crowed but they don’t have the right to play to empty stands.

It’s not just Tennis, some musicians and singers fail to perform under pressure. Or any other field which puts people in front of an audience, some cope well others less so. Trying to claim shyness is a mental illness is taking things a bit far IMO.

Fair play to her. She’s put the debate out there now. Things will start to change.

I think confusing shyness with “getting huge waves of anxiety” is taking things a bit far IMO

I don’t think she is treated the same as all the other athletes tho’ as she’s a woman, and not white, so she gets some absolutely ridiculous questions that would never be asked of other players. So maybe training for the journalists would be a good start.

I can agree with both sides

I also find myself on the fence on this one. If she has a genuine issue, then she needs understanding, support and help. Not sure she’s gone about it in the right way though.

I only had to look at the pseudos of the contributor to this thread to predict what their contributions would be.

Please stop doing this. It’s snide and makes you sound like a tinfoil hat wearing kid running to tell teacher. If you think someone is breaking the forum rules sack up and report it.

Trying to claim shyness is a mental illness is taking things a bit far IMO.

Please stop doing this too. Crippling anxiety and shyness are different things. Shyness has absolutely nothing to do with performance anxiety. Conflating them is incredibly insulting to anyone who has the former, or knows someone who does.

French bureaucracy at its finest

All 4 grand slams have threatened to block her

Symptom of sport becoming media driven

Seriously! Name a time when sport hasn’t been media driven. Ancient Greeks. Roman colliseium. Olympics. It’s nothing but a media driven enterprise and never had been anything else. Want the big bucks to play tennis for a living and travel the world? You ain’t doing that by just bashing a ball about.

Please stop doing this. It’s snide and makes you sound like a tinfoil hat wearing kid running to tell teacher. If you think someone is breaking the forum rules sack up and report it.

No thank you, casual xenophobia I’ll just call out in the thread and reserve reporting for when it steps over the line to racism.

Reading through the thread I’m not the only to find that some have decided it’s a nationalistic issue rather than sporting, and decided to slag off a nation rather than debate the merits of abusing ones position to try to bend rules in ones favour.

Sleep tight.

Obviously most of the pros hate doing the press conferences, and I’m guessing the tournament organisers are trying to hold the line to stop more of them giving them a swerve, with legitimate reasons or otherwise, and as far as they’re concerned, those with genuine anxiety issues around them should just shut up about it.

FWIW I also think they add nothing to the media content, it’s just a another chance for the stars to be photographed next to a Perrier logo, or whatever.

Not sure she’s gone about it in the right way though.

The way I understand it from what I have read is that the Tennis organisations haven’t listened and she has done all that she feels is left for her.

Shes the nick diaz of womens tennis..

As an elite level athlete, part of her ‘job’ is dealing with the media.

Is it? Why?

It is the same for all elite level athletes.

Is it? Surely there’s lots of sports where the media circus is minimal even at the very top of the game?

If she does not want to to the media, then don’t enter.

But why? what if she just wants to play tennis at the very highest level?

If her mental health is not strong enough to cope, the is is strong enough to play tennis at the top level? Perhaps she shouldn’t be playing until she can cope.

It would seem she’s rather good at hitting a ball so it doesn’t seem to have an impact on her ability to do the sport at the very highest level.

She can’t choose what she wants to do.

She just did! Masters tennis is facing a dilemma – be seen to give into the players or don’t have the very best player(s) in your competition. When the prize money is so high she’s not exactly under financial pressure to keep competing to pay her electricity bill. On the other hand if the Masters only have the “2nd best” players because the best players take their winnings and say stuff the media circus after the first year or two they’ll soon start to suffer…

She is an outstanding tennis player – but at the level she plays at, that is not enough.

Really – what has she ever said in an interview that made any difference to your perception of her abilities? or for that matter anyone else in a tennis press conference?

I don’t get the whole ‘it’s just part of the job’ attitude some folk have. If there’s a part of your job that’s damaging to your health then you should absolutely have the right to fix that. If you think anxiety isn’t a health issue then you’re quite simply lucky enough to have no experience of it.

There’s a surprising amount of ‘suck it up’ media apologism on here. She’s a sports person – media is a tiny part of her job compared to training for and winning tennis matches, the media might bitch and moan about how important they are, they might coerce governing bodies into punishing her, but her concerns are valid and should be addressed, not dismissed. Is disappoint.

She’s a sportswoman, not a media presenter. She should be able to choose, without prejudice, whether to talk to the press or not after a match. If her sponsors don’t like the path she chooses then they have an obvious option. Not sure the tournament organisers or the governing body can find a winning position if they try to force her to do otherwise.

The whole ‘it’s part of the job’ approach is nothing more than shoulder shrugging and saying ‘meh’, which isn’t helpful – just because something is doesn’t mean it should be.

FWIW, I think this will play out in her favour (both emotionally and financially) in the end.

the media is a massive part of the job for a sportsman/woman, without it they don’t get the covarage so much less money in the sport from sponsers/tv. 99% are perfectly happy doing it, the rest need to stop moaning and get on with doing it or don’t compete. there choice but they can’t have it both ways.

I’ve watched some of her press junket interviews on you tube and she is absolutely brilliant, responding to some of the stupid questions in the most imaginative, almost Monty pythonesque way. I also recall a certain racing driver kick back against the junket format a couple of years back……Seems like these sportspeople are getting above themselves..

I can see a court case where the right to ban an athlete unless they accord to media commitments will be challenged. An athlete’s right to remain silent might be seen as a human right. The exreme scrutiny that athletes are put under is now under question and could be seen in parallel to other issues around press intrusion.

I’m a little bit caught by this. In one way yes it is part of the deal and she should accept it. In other ways maybe she is right to say it has gone too far.  When you have tour de France GC riders who will avoid winning stages early on to then have no media obligations and be able to get to the bus faster for more rest the obligations start to get in the way of the sport.  Maybe it’s time to reexamine the balance of power between athletes and competition owners if the actual competition is no longer the most important part

“the rest need to stop moaning and get on with doing it”

Shut up and dribble you mean?

No thank you, casual xenophobia I’ll just call out in the thread and reserve reporting for when it steps over the line to racism.

If that’s what you were doing, fine. It isn’t though.
You have a long history of insinuating people have multiple user names or have changed them. You say nothing about the content of their posts, you just leave the accusations dangling.

If you think a post is xenophobic, say so. That is far more adult than sneakily suggesting the user is fake/or using multiple accounts.

You forgot to apologise for your ignorant comments about mental health.

An athlete’s right to remain silent might be seen as a human right.

they sign that right away when they sign sponership deals and enter competition

They aren’t forced to sign lucrative sponsorship deals, believe it or not they do it through choice.

However, you are right about the second point. If they want to perform in any major tournament they are forced to sign up to media duties, wether they want to or not and wether or not they feel doing so is conducive to their mental health.

I think you’ll find that this is the issue she is raising.

Do you really think her sponsors are angry that she doesn’t want to perform at a press junket? By actually standing up for herself and daring to have an opinion on something she has only made her ‘brand’ more valuable (wether intentional or not).

The phrase ‘brand values’ comes to mind. In this instance, Naomi Osaka has demonstrated that she has ‘values’ whilst the tournament organisers have demonstrated that they don’t.

Feel for her.
I’d happily take watching sport without all the forced post match interviews.
Hope Wimbledon can take a lead and find way to let her play without the damaging media stuff.
I’d be more likely, not less, to watch.

That will be more of a challenge though as the big 4 competitions have grouped together with the approach taken, so all 4 are now backed into the same corner.

Removing herself has saved her more hassles and immediate issues with the competition. Hopefully all sides of this can now focus on fixing things with support for her; training for the media and a positive solution for the players by the organisers (who should benefit from that)…hopefully.

The irony is Osaka has shown real personality and has piqued huge interest in the women’s game. It reminds me of when they fine Ronnie O’Sullivan for not playing Instagram bingo in the post-match interviews, despite him being the biggest draw for snooker and lining their pockets for years.

They are tedious in the extreme.

Agreed.

They can be good with someone who actually wants do them (to promote themselves), but someone pressed into doing one results in a painful experience for everyone… they shouldn’t bother.

Ofc course media is a massively important part of being a professional athlete (key thing here is professional, not just elite). Tournaments obviously think having media coverage of their events is important, both for general publicity but also for the benefit of the tournament sponsors. Why pay millions to sponsor a tournament if the press barely covers it (as they want press conferences as part of the deal in providing that coverage)?

It’s an unfortunate situation for her (or anyone with mental health issues that are made worse by the process) and the type of questions asked in press conferences probably needs to be reviewed (although you then getting into murky ground of effectively censoring the media) but as long as the media considers them important then sponsors are going to consider them important and athletes need to meet sponsor obligations (either personal or tournament).