(Provided by Tennis World USA)
Former world no.1 Naomi Osaka has now been stopped for almost a year, since August 20, 2022 where she was defeated in the first round of the US Open. Many things have changed since that period, Naomi overcame her mental problems and then, finally just under a month ago, on July 11, 2023, she became the mother of a beautiful little girl named Shai.During her career, however, the Japanese has had to deal with depression, often having a conflictual relationship with the media, the spotlight, attention.
In 2021, the four-time Grand Slam champion decides not to attend the Roland Garros press conference. She decides to face a $15,000 fine by deciding not to appear in front of the microphones.And that date was a watershed moment in modern tennis.
All athletes (and not just athletes) should thank Naomi for opening Pandora’s box on the mental health issue.From that moment, after the words of the Japanese, many athletes of many other sports publicly have their mental health problems, illuminating a gray area in the sports world that has often conditioned the sporting life and not only of athletes, at all levels.Naomi’s bravery may have even saved the lives of many people, and that’s no exaggeration.
Talking about these problems is the first step in accepting them, in living them in a better way, trying to analyze them without fear. She, who is an icon, may have passed on her courage to those in need, perhaps helping those who could think of drastic gestures.After withdrawing for months due to pregnancy, she Osaka said she plans to return to the court in January 2024.Naomi talked with the Mountaintop Conversations podcast, returning to the problems faced in the past: “The more I felt that I was becoming known, the more I realized that I was closing myself off and that my character was changing, and I didn’t like this at all.
At that moment I thought: I have to take a break, but I can’t do it because then I get a fine. But then I thought I’d rather have the fine than go through all of this with my energy.”On the important issue of mental health, she said: “I didn’t know what mental health was.
When you grow up, nobody talks about it and I honestly believe that the first time I heard of mental health was when I retired from the Roland Garros. It’s not like I had a dark childhood or anything like that, it’s just that everything in my life was so focused on tennis.”
