Naomi Osaka has addressed her tearful reaction to a heckler’s comments at Indian Wells this week as other star players sympathised with the Japan player’s plight while suggesting the four-time Grand Slam champion needs to be ready for such adversities.
Osaka went down to Veronika Kudermetova in the second round and halted play during the second game of the first set to approach the chair umpire, asking for action to be taken against a fan who reportedly shouted “Naomi, you suck”, leaving her in tears.
The world No.2 took to social media this morning and wrote: “Very proud of myself for reaching a point in my life that despite the lows, I would still rather be myself than anyone else.”
Osaka said after her loss to Kudermetova that the moment triggered an emotional reaction because it reminded her of the questionable treatment Serena and Venus Williams were subjected to at Indian Wells in 2001, when Serena was booed during a match amid claims of racial slurs being directed at the tennis great, her sister and her father, Richard, who were both in the crowd.
The crowd’s reaction to the Williams family intensified after Russia’s Elena Dementieva accused Richard Williams of manipulating matches between his daughters that year. The accusation provoked a fierce reaction from the crowd at Indian Wells, after Venus withdrew, with a knee injury, from her semi-final against Serena just moments before it was slated to begin.
Richard said he was the target of several racial slurs throughout the match, with the crowd’s venom directed towards his family, and even went on during the final and after Serena defeated Kim Clijsters in three sets.
The two sisters subsequently boycotted Indian Wells for 14 years until Serena returned to the event in 2015.
“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before, it didn’t really bother me. But (being) heckled here, I watched a video of Venus and Serena (Williams) getting heckled here, and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it,” Osaka told the crowd.
“I don’t know why, but it went into my head, and it got replayed a lot. I’m trying not to cry. But I just wanted to say thank you and congratulations.”
When asked about Osaka’s reaction to the venom directed at her, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal had a mixed response, with both expressing a level of understanding, adding that being heckled is part of being a professional athlete.
“The easy answer for me is I feel terrible about what happened, that never should happen,” Nadal said earlier this week. “Even if is terrible to hear from that, we need to be prepared for that, no?
“At the same time, as we like a lot when the people are supporting, when something like this happens, we need to accept and move forward, no?
“We need to resist these kind of issues that can happen when you are exposed to the people, no?
“I understand that probably Naomi, suffered a lot with these, probably kind of issues that she has, mental (health) issues. The only thing that I wish her is recover well from that and wish her all the very best.
“But the life, nothing is perfect in this life, no? We need to be ready for adversities.”
Murray had a similar take on the issue.
“I’ve played in certain atmospheres as well myself in tennis, like Davis Cup atmospheres, away from home, especially where the atmosphere’s intense, and sometimes things are said and it’s not that comfortable,” Murray said.
“The people that come to watch, obviously you want them to be there and supporting the players and not making it more difficult for them. I don’t know, but it’s also something that’s always just kind of been part of sport as well.
“If you go and watch a basketball match, for example, and a player’s taking free throws, I would say like almost every basketball match I’ve been to one of the players has been heckled by the crowd as well. And whilst it is wrong for those individuals to be doing it, the athletes have to kind of be used to that as well or be able to deal with that too, even though it’s not pleasant.
“So, I feel for Naomi, that obviously it upset her a lot, but it’s always been something that’s been part of sport as well. So you have to be prepared for that in some ways and be able to tolerate it because it does happen regularly across all sports.”
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