Naomi Osaka during her first round at Roland Garros, May 30, 2021. – Javier Garcia/BPI/Shutterstock/SIPA
- Naomi Osaka withdrew from the tournament, citing social phobia and emotional fragility a few months after overcoming a depressive state.
- The vulnerability of the Japanese recalls the mental difficulties experienced by many players on the circuit, especially during a pandemic.
A Roland-Garros,
And in the end, everyone is really pissed off. The new president of the FFT Gilles Moretton, who had first spoken of “phenomenal error” and pulled out his big muscles with the brotherhood of the Grand Slams (12,000 euros fine, threat of short-term exclusion), before to publicly regret an “unfortunate outcome” by wishing Naomi Osaka “the best and the quickest recovery possible”, all without answering any questions, an irony that will not have escaped anyone’s notice.
Osaka herself, who felt compelled to return home for only wanting to avoid one or two conferences, advancing “the waves of stress” that wash over her when speaking to the press. And finally tennis lovers, who thought they had the chance to enjoy a little more the best player of the moment, winner of the last two Grand Slam tournaments in which she participated.
“The media have helped women’s tennis to become what it is”
Let us evacuate here the anecdotal debate which provoked this diplomatic crisis between the world number 2 and the authorities of tennis. One can well comment for hours on the merits of sending the athletes to be cooked by the journalists half an hour after a defeat, and remember that the reports in the press of the 70s did not include any statements from the players, to whom we gave a royal peace, it’s give-and-take, recalls the idol Billie Jean King in the New York Times : “In our time, without the press, no one would have been interested in us or what we thought. There is no debate that the media have helped women’s tennis to become what it is. I recognize that things are very different today with social networks and the possibility of giving one’s truth without going through journalists, but we are all together in this. “
Naomi Osaka announces she’s withdrawing from the French Open: “I never wanted to be a distraction” pic.twitter.com/de0RdETvVx
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 31, 2021
Basically, players have obligations in exchange for more astronomical checks each year, and switching to conf is one of them. Journalists are moreover happy accomplices most of the time, far from conjuring up to torture a virtuous woman in the case of Osaka. Nadal, Swiatek, Barty, Federer, all agreed on this when they were launched on the subject, hence the initial firmness of the organizers. But it is that no one, then, had yet understood the depth of the discomfort felt by the Japanese. Her sister Mari, herself a former player and first confidant of the 2nd player in the world, sold part of the wick on Reddit.
“These opinions ended up going to his head”
“Naomi told me before Roland-Garros that a relative had remarked to her that she did not play well on clay. At each press conference, she is told that she does not win on clay. Her confidence is gone and all these opinions ended up going to his head until saying to herself that she cannot play well on this surface ”. The innocent comment of a relative about his level on clay. So this is what brought to the surface “the social phobia” of the champion, “her severe depression” which handicapped her for a long time after her victory at the US Open 2018 and the relapse that awaits her.
“Depression,” the word has raised alarm bells everywhere. Serena, the other big sister: “I would like to take her in my arms because, I’ve been there too”. Who has not been there in tennis, this stupid sport (dixit Gasquet) where we lose most of the time, even when we win. We had read we do not know where that a guy like Wawrinka, the best player of the 2010s if we stick to humans, had lost about 40% of his career games, which gives an idea of the percentage of depressed in the middle. Malik Chamalidis, the man who created the mental performance department at the Federation, arises with us after the victory of Fiona Ferro, whom he has been accompanying for several months.
On Osaka? “The important theme is how to get support when you change status. Winning a Grand Slam, becoming world number 1, being put on a pedestal, not everyone has the shoulders to live it in a more or less balanced way. Then we talk more and more about the well-being of athletes, but there is still a paradox, it is people who are used to living on a razor’s edge. To reach the level of Osaka, you have to be inhabited, obsessed, invested with a mission, there you touch the deep motivations. What meaning do we give to his presence on the court at a given moment? “
On the state of the circuit in general, after a year of pandemic, closed-door matches, and players who crack one by one, like Dominik Thiem, Gaël Monfils, or Benoît Paire, who acknowledged Monday that behind his provocations and his boasting, was hiding a man “who had suffered deeply in recent months”?
“The well-being of the athletes is a top priority for us”, assures the WTA
“We know that we are stepping into a changing ground,” continues Malik Chamalidis. Playing without an audience, living in a bubble for months, confining yourself, deconfining yourself all require mental skills that you haven’t learned beforehand. Some live it better than others, but the players are not victims, they have chosen to be in the spotlight. You have to know how to adapt. “Isn’t it the role of tennis authorities, all the same, to provide psychological help for its entertainment workers? After lecturing in Osaka last week, the WTA tried to empathize in its latest release: “The well-being of the athletes is a top priority for us. We have invested significant resources over the past twenty years to improve our player psychological support system, and we are available to help Naomi in any way we can ”.
Partnerships were created in 202 with companies specializing in mental coaching, such as Sportingchance or Headspace, but these did not respond to our requests on the number of players who had been able to use their services for a long time. year. “You have to make an effort to say: I need help, I need someone to listen to me, whether it’s at the WTA or someone you see every week, whatever. Judge Serena Williams I don’t know. I have been there too and I was lucky enough to be able to talk to people at that time. And it allowed me to relieve myself. “
Choosing the right entourage
Makis Chamalidis, who left his post at the Federation in 2019, does not really believe in the Good Samaritan theory from outside: “Most players and players are not going to take what ATP offers them as tool, they will not be interested. It means that you have to be efficient in choosing your staff and those around you. You have to be able to count on competent people in this field for the difficult moments of a career. And avoid those who come to tell you that you are a good for nothing on clay, even without thinking badly.
