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      Naomi Osaka’s Uneasy Rush Into the Spotlight

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      Since emerging as an elite tennis player and Grand Slam tournament champion in 2018, Osaka has experienced success and anguish, both of which played out in public. It is “a lot to put on anyone’s plate.”PARIS — A self-described introvert, Naomi Osaka has had to learn to deal with global stardom on the fly.At times, Osaka, 23, has been thrust into the brightest of spotlights. At times, she has sought that central role. Since emerging as an elite tennis player and a Grand Slam tournament champion in 2018, she has had an uncommonly eventful journey: full of great success on and off the court but also full of dramatic, unexpected developments and no shortage of anguish.On Monday, Osaka, who is the highest-paid female athlete in the world, walked away from the French Open after her first-round win because of a dispute with tournament organizers over her participation in post-match news conferences. She announced last week that she would not do any press at the French Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments, citing concerns for her mental health. On Monday, she elaborated, saying she had “suffered long bouts of depression” since her victory at the United States Open in 2018. “I have had a really hard time coping with that,” she added.“It’s been just an unbelievable three years for her to have to digest,” said Jim Loehr, a performance psychologist who since the 1980s has worked with athletes, including tennis players like Jim Courier, Monica Seles and Novak Djokovic, but not Osaka. “When you consider the social justice issues and Covid and all the other things that are going on, that’s a lot to put on anyone’s plate so young for sure.”A look at some of the experiences Osaka has had to navigate:Indian Wells, March 2018“This is probably going to be like the worst acceptance speech of all time.”Osaka after winning the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., in 2018.John G. Mabanglo/Epa-Efe, via Rex, via ShutterstockOsaka had been considered a potential breakout star since her late teens. She had easy baseline power and an imposing serve reminiscent of a young Serena Williams. But agents were also convinced that her multicultural background could help her connect to fans internationally. Osaka was primarily raised in the United States, by a mother who is Japanese and a father who is Afro-Haitian. What she was missing was a breakout result. It came at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. Unseeded and ranked 44th, she rolled through the draw in the desert, defeating leading players like Maria Sharapova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep, then ranked No. 1.Osaka did not come close to dropping a set in her final three matches, making a tough task look easy, but the harder part was to come: the victory ceremony in which her fear of public speaking made it difficult for her to get through the speech.“The thing is I prepared and everything, and I knew what I was going to say in which order, but then when he called me, I freaked out,” she said later. “And then I just started saying whatever came into my mind first, which is why I think I kept stopping halfway through my sentences, because I just remembered something else I had to say. So, yeah, that was pretty embarrassing.”U.S. Open final, September 2018“I know that she really wanted to have the 24th Grand Slam, right? Everyone knows this. It’s on the commercials. It’s everywhere.”Osaka and Serena Williams hug after Osaka won the 2018 U.S. Open.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesIn her first Grand Slam final, Osaka managed the moment with exceptional poise and precision, defeating the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium.But the match turned tumultuous in the second set when Williams had a series of confrontations with the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos, as he cited her for three code-of-conduct violations. The violations resulted in escalating penalties, with Williams being docked a point and then a game.Many in the crowd were outraged and confused, unfamiliar with the rules on penalties, and the booing continued during the victory ceremony as Osaka pulled her visor down to shield her eyes and cried.“That is the most traumatic way any champion has ever won their first major,” Pam Shriver, the ESPN analyst and a former leading player, said on Monday.Again, the tennis, for those sitting courtside, seemed like the easy part for Osaka.Williams tried to remedy the situation: putting her arm around her much younger, much less experienced opponent during the ceremony and asking the fans not to boo. Osaka has repeatedly made it clear that she harbors no ill will toward Williams.On Monday, when she announced her withdrawal from this year’s French Open, she said she had “suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018.”Wimbledon first round, July 2019“Can I leave? I feel like I’m about to cry.”Osaka reacted during her upset loss to Yulia Putintseva on the first day of Wimbledon in 2019.Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated PressWhatever psychological challenges Osaka had to navigate after New York did not stop her from winning a second straight major singles title, this one at the 2019 Australian Open. The victory put her at No. 1 in the rankings, but she surprisingly split with her coach, Sascha Bajin, after Australia and was unable to recapture her form in the tournaments that followed.At Wimbledon, she was upset in the first round by Yulia Putintseva on the grass courts that did not suit Osaka’s big-swinging power game nearly as well as the hardcourts of New York and Melbourne.At the post-match news conference, Osaka was subdued, answering questions politely but economically. About halfway through her scheduled time, a British reporter asked if it had been difficult for her to adjust to her new level of fame. Osaka turned to the moderator and asked if she could leave because she was beginning to tear up.“I’m sorry, we have to leave it there,” the moderator told the reporters, as Osaka swiftly exited the room.U.S. Open third round, August 2019“I just thought about what I wanted her to feel leaving the court.”Osaka consoled Coco Gauff after their match at the U.S. Open in 2019.Justin Lane/EPA, via ShutterstockThere were no boos after this Osaka victory in Ashe Stadium, but there were still powerful emotions as she faced Coco Gauff, an American 15-year-old brimming with talent and high hopes for her U.S. Open debut.The match was a rout as the much steadier Osaka prevailed, 6-3, 6-0. Gauff was crestfallen during and after the handshake, but Osaka, who had practiced at the same Florida academy as Gauff, felt a connection.She wanted to help and convinced Gauff to share the stage with her for the post-match interview on court so that Gauff could connect with the fans who had cheered her on.“I wanted her to have her head high, not walk off the court sad,” Osaka explained. “To, like, be aware that she’s accomplished so much, and she’s still so young.”Seen through the lens of this year’s French Open, it is tempting to take a more nuanced view of that moment. Osaka now has made it clear that she believes athletes should not be obliged to speak to the news media after defeat. But that night in New York was poignant, and Gauff was appreciative.Now 17, she returned the favor on Tuesday, offering Osaka her support in Paris. “She’s just a really nice person,” Gauff said. “I hope she can push through this. Mental health, it’s a dear subject to me, and I feel for her.”Western & Southern Open, August 2020“Before I am an athlete, I am a black woman. And as a black woman I feel as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis.”Osaka wore a Black Lives Matter T-shirt while she waited to be escorted over to the Grandstand court for her semifinal match during the Western & Southern Open.Jason Szenes/EPA, via ShutterstockThe coronavirus pandemic shut down the tennis tours for five months in 2020, and Osaka spent the time working on her game at home in Los Angeles with her new coach, Wim Fissette. She also became involved in the social-justice and police-reform movements. In May, Osaka flew to Minneapolis with her boyfriend, the rapper Cordae, shortly after the murder of George Floyd to “pay our respects and have our voices heard on the streets,” she wrote in an essay in Esquire.She returned to the tour in August with a new awareness of the power of her platform. At the Western & Southern Open, she won her quarterfinal match and then announced that she would not play her semifinal against Elise Mertens. Joining athletes and teams in other professional leagues, she was intent on bringing attention to the issue of police violence against Black people.“If I can get a conversation started in a majority-white sport, I consider that a step in the right direction,” she said in a social media post.She started more than a conversation. The United States Tennis Association, WTA and ATP jointly announced that they would pause play for the day to support the stand against social injustice and racial inequality. Osaka won her semifinal match the next day, withdrew from the final to manage a hamstring injury, and then went on to win her second United States Open title. Before each of her matches, she walked onto the court wearing a mask bearing the name of a Black victim of racist violence.Osaka defeated Victoria Azarenka in the final and improved to 3-0 in Grand Slam finals. The young champion who had once struggled to get through a victory speech had found her voice.French Open, June 2021“I’m going to take some time away from the court now.”Osaka’s wave to the French Open crowd on Sunday proved to be a goodbye.Caroline Blumberg/EPA, via ShutterstockIt was, in part, the memory of her empowered 2020 season that made Osaka’s pretournament announcement in Paris so surprising. In Melbourne earlier in the season, she had been resolute, winning a second Australian Open despite quarantine, bubble life and the two match points she had to save in the fourth round against Garbiñe Muguruza.But that confidence proved ephemeral. She lost early at the Miami Open and then even earlier on clay in Madrid and Rome.Before the start of Roland Garros, she announced that she wanted to protect her mental health by not speaking with the news media during the tournament. That caught outsiders and insiders by surprise and created a dispute with tennis officials.Osaka won her first-round match on Sunday over Patricia Maria Tig but was fined $15,000 for skipping the mandatory news conference and was threatened with a default if she continued to flout the rules. On Monday, she withdrew, and she will take a break from the tour of uncertain duration. Her attempt to seek some refuge in silence instead generated more global chatter and distraction. But this could also turn out to be a watershed in how professional tennis accommodates players with mental-health concerns.Osaka revealed her challenges with depression and the “huge waves of anxiety” she experienced before speaking to the news media.“I think there definitely needs to be more open dialogue on what not only her but everyone on the tour goes through,” Sloane Stephens, the American player, said on Tuesday. “I think we don’t talk about it enough. I support her, and I appreciate her speaking out, because maybe that will help other players and other people speak out.” More

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      Assessing Osaka's Sad Departure From the French Open

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      Naomi Osaka, a superstar in the sport, pulled out of the French Open after she was fined for skipping a news conference. Did it have to end this way?PARIS — Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open was not the outcome anyone in tennis desired, and yet it happened just the same.It could likely have been avoided through better communication and smarter decisions, but on Monday night the sport’s most prominent young star felt she had no better option than to pull out of the year’s second Grand Slam tournament.Her second-round match with Ana Bogdan will be a walkover for Bogdan instead of another chance for the second-ranked Osaka, 23, to make steps forward on red clay, a surface that has long bedeviled her.“Above all, it’s just really sad: for her, for the tournament, for the sport,” said Martina Navratilova, a former No. 1 who has seen plenty of tennis turmoil in her 50 years in the game. “She tried to sidestep or lessen a problem for herself and instead she just made it much bigger than it was in the first place.”It is not wise at this stage to speculate on the full scope of Osaka’s issues. She is still coming to grips with them herself, and she said in her withdrawal announcement on social media that she had experienced long bouts of depression since the 2018 United States Open that she won by defeating Serena Williams in a tumultuous final.What is clear is that the catalyst in Paris, if only the catalyst, was one of professional sport’s staples: the news conference.Osaka, citing her mental health, announced ahead of the tournament that she would not “do any press” during the French Open. News conferences are required at the Grand Slams for players who are requested, and Osaka was the first tennis star to make it clear that she intended to break the rule for as long as she was in the tournament.Her announcement on social media caught the French Open organizers and sport’s leadership by surprise. That was her first misjudgment. Her next was failing to be accessible when those tennis leaders justifiably sought more information.Gilles Moretton, the new French Tennis Federation president, and others repeatedly tried to speak with her without success.When she did indeed skip the news conference after her first-round victory on Sunday over Patricia Maria Tig, the French Open fined her $15,000 and the Grand Slam tournament chiefs made it clear that she risked being defaulted from the tournament and future Grand Slam tournaments if she continued to decline to fulfill her media duties.It was a hard line: too hard in light of what Osaka explained on Monday night. “I feel for her, and I feel the sport in general has mishandled this,” said Pam Shriver, a former leading player and president of the WTA Tour Players Association. “I just feel that Grand Slam statement poured fuel on the flames in a way that was irreversible. I feel they should have kept their views and efforts quiet, not made them public, and worked behind the scenes. All the more so because the pandemic is still the elephant in the room and has been so hard on so many young people.”Depression is more common in sports than many would expect. The problem was that Osaka did not offer tennis’s leaders that explanation — in public or apparently in private — until Monday night.Considering Osaka’s prominence and the increased awareness of and sensitivity to athletes’ mental-health challenges, it is hard to imagine that Moretton or the other Grand Slam leaders would not have tried to work with her to find a more conciliatory short-term solution if they had been given a clearer picture.Instead, they were left too long in the dark: with Osaka focusing her pretournament complaints on reforming the sport’s player-media model, citing overly repetitive questions and lines of inquiry that made her doubt herself. There are perhaps better ways for professional journalists to find out more about tennis players and their matches.Tennis champions and would-be champions have been dealing with such challenges in the interview room for decades and if Osaka is sensitive to questions about her weaknesses on clay, imagine how Pete Sampras felt when he was asked about his own failings for more than a decade as he tried and failed to win Roland Garros.Osaka met the news media after losing in the third round of the 2020 Australian Open.Kelly Defina/Getty ImagesAnd yet he kept showing up for news conferences and chasing the prize, just as Jana Novotna did at Wimbledon before finally winning the singles title in 1998.As Billie Jean King likes to say, pressure is a privilege, and repetitive questions are an inconvenience but also a reflection of legitimate public interest. Media coverage, much of it favorable, has helped Osaka become the world’s best paid female athlete. She earned more than $55 million in the last year, nearly all of it from sponsorship deals.That brings its own new pressures. “She has lots on her back,” said Marin Cilic, the Croatian men’s star who once broke down in the middle of a Wimbledon final.But facing unwelcome questions, even in defeat, does not seem like too much to ask. “No comment” or a more polite demurral remain legitimate options. But one of the takeaways from l’affaire Osaka may be the realization that some players really do find it all too much to bear (and it did not go unnoticed that Moretton took no questions at his own short news conference on Monday night). The debate will be, how much special treatment should such players receive?One of the reasons for the Grand Slam tournaments’ hard line with Osaka was the desire for fairness.“I think Naomi has always struggled with public speaking and dealing with the press has always made her anxious and so it’s finally come to a head,” said Rennae Stubs, a former No. 1 doubles player who is now a tour-level coach and ESPN analyst. “You cannot allow a player to have an unfair advantage by not doing post-match press. It’s time consuming, so if one player is not doing that and others are, that is not equal. But after this, it’s time to really take a hard, long look at all of it.”Williams was sympathetic after her first-round victory in Paris on Monday.“I feel for Naomi,” she said. “I feel like I wish I could give her a hug because I know what it’s like. I’ve been in those positions. We have different personalities, and people are different.”“I’m thick,” Williams said, possibly referring to being thick-skinned. “Other people are thin. Everyone is different, and everyone handles things differently. You just have to let her handle it the way she wants to, in the best way she thinks she can.”That is a fine sentiment, but it is also important to learn when things go awry. It seems clear that if this unfortunate situation had been handled differently from the start, Osaka would not have felt she had become too much of a distraction and would be getting ready for round two in Paris instead of packing her bags, unsure of when she will play next with Wimbledon starting in less than a month.But the underlying issues that Osaka faces would likely have remained.“The bottom line is that this is about more than talking to the press,” Navratilova said. “This goes much deeper than that, and we have no way of knowing, nor should we speculate, just how deep it does go.” More

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      Naomi Osaka Quits the French Open After News Conference Dispute

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      The four-time Grand Slam tournament winner wrote on Instagram that she had suffered from bouts of depression since 2018 and that she would “take some time” away from the tennis court.PARIS — The weeklong confrontation between Naomi Osaka, the second-ranked woman in tennis, and leaders of the sport’s four Grand Slam tournaments turned bitter on Monday when Ms. Osaka withdrew from the French Open, citing concerns for her mental health.The move was a dramatic turn in the high-stakes standoff between the most powerful officials in tennis and Ms. Osaka. The player, 23, is not only the world’s highest-paid female athlete but also a generational star who has quickly become the most magnetic figure in tennis.“I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris,” Ms. Osaka said in an Instagram post, in which she said she struggled with depression and anxiety.She had never before spoken in public about her depression, which she said began after her 2018 victory over Serena Williams at the United States Open before a boisterous crowd that was firmly behind her opponent.“I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer,” she added. “The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that.” She did not indicate when she would return to tournament play.It is the first time in professional tennis that a star as significant as Ms. Osaka who has not suffered a physical injury has walked away in the middle of an event as big as the French Open, and Gilles Moretton, president of the French Federation of Tennis, called her withdrawal “unfortunate.”Mr. Moretton said in a statement that tournament organizers wished her the “quickest possible recovery.”“We are sorry and sad for Naomi Osaka,” he said. “We remain very committed to all athletes’ well-being and to continually improving every aspect of players’ experience in our tournament, including with the media, like we have always strived to do.”The dispute between Ms. Osaka and tournament officials began on Wednesday when she announced she would not participate in post-match news conferences during the French Open because she said negative questions about her play affected her mental health. It came to a head on Sunday after her first-round win, and she made good on her promise to skip the news conference.Within hours Ms. Osaka was fined $15,000 by the French Open’s tournament referee, and the leaders of the four Grand Slam tournaments — the Australian, French and United States Opens, and Wimbledon — threatened that she could be expelled from the French Open and face harsher penalties if she would not fulfill her media obligations.Ms. Osaka described herself in her Monday Instagram post as an introverted person who suffers from anxiety before she has to speak with the press. “Anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that I’m often wearing headphones as that helps dull my social anxiety,” she wrote.She said reporters had never been unkind to her, but “here in Paris I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences.”Ms. Osaka’s sister, Mari, a former professional tennis player, indicated that Naomi Osaka’s anxiety was caused in part by her struggles to win on clay courts like the one at the French Open. The press asks about her sister’s poor performance every time she plays on clay, which hurts her, Mari Osaka said in a post on Reddit.By avoiding news conferences, her sister could “block everything out. No talking to people who is going to put doubt in her mind.”Naomi Osaka said she had written to tournament officials privately to apologize for the distraction she had created and had offered to speak with them after the tournament about potentially changing rules requiring players to engage with the media that she described as “outdated.” Before returning to the tour, she said, she would discuss with tournament officials ways they could make things better for the players.This is not the first time that Ms. Osaka, who rarely grants one-on-one interviews with the mainstream media, has taken a public stand on an issue. Last summer, tennis officials suspended play at the Western & Southern Open after the four-time Grand Slam tournament winner announced she would not play her semifinal match to draw attention to the issue of police violence against Black people following the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.Osaka gave an on-court interview but did not do a news conference after her first-round match.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesThough she skipped her post-match news conference on Sunday, Ms. Osaka did take three questions after the match from an on-court interviewer, Fabrice Santoro, and a few more queries on her way off the court from Wowow, the Japanese broadcaster with which she is under contract. Ms. Osaka plays for Japan and lives in the United States.Few of Ms. Osaka’s colleagues have shown unequivocal support for her stance.“Press and players and the tournaments comes hand in hand,” Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Grand Slam champion, said. “I think it’s very important in developing our sport, in promoting our sport.” She added that there were moments when the media did need to be more compassionate.Ms. Williams has been through many difficult news conferences during her career but viewed the experiences as having made her stronger. “I feel for Naomi, and I wish I could give her a hug because I’ve been in those situations,” the 23-time Grand Slam tournament winner said. “You have to let her handle it the way she wants to in the best way she can.”Tour officials have long believed that news conferences are an important part of promoting the sport and the athletes themselves. Ms. Osaka questions that assumption.“If the organizations think they can keep saying, ‘do press or you’re going to get fined,’ and continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that are the centerpiece of their cooperation then I just gotta laugh,” she wrote on social media on Wednesday.Last week the WTA Tour said it welcomed a dialogue with Ms. Osaka about mental health but stood by its position on press obligations for players. “Professional athletes have a responsibility to their sport and their fans to speak to the media surrounding their competition, allowing them the opportunity to share their perspective and tell their story,” the WTA said.Ms. Osaka is certainly not the only elite athlete to have acknowledged mental health struggles. The Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has spoken openly about his struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts. The NBA player Kevin Love has spoken about having a panic attack during a game. Data shows that as many as 35 percent of elite athletes have suffered from a mental health crisis, such as stress, eating disorders, burnout, depression or anxiety, according to Athletes for Hope, a group that seeks to engage athletes in charitable causes.Although tournament officials allowed Ms. Osaka a platform to demonstrate her beliefs last summer, this time leaders of the sport’s most prestigious events refused to bend.In the statement signed by Jayne Hrdlicka, the head of Tennis Australia; Mr. Moretton, president of the France Tennis Federation; Ian Hewitt, the chairman of the All England Lawn Tennis Club; and Mike McNulty, chairman of the United States Tennis Association, the officials said they had reached out to Ms. Osaka to open a discussion about both her well being and concerns she had about news conferences and mental health.Ms. Osaka, they said, refused to engage with them, leaving them with no choice but to pursue significant penalties to help ensure that she did not gain an advantage over her competitors.“We want to underline that rules are in place to ensure all players are treated exactly the same, no matter their stature, beliefs or achievement,” the officials stated. “As a sport there is nothing more important than ensuring no player has an unfair advantage over another, which unfortunately is the case in this situation if one player refuses to dedicate time to participate in media commitments while the others all honor their commitments.”Osaka has said she will take some time away from the court.Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesSince the inception of social media more than a decade ago, sports stars, politicians and celebrities, especially those who are younger, have increasingly used it to speak directly to their fans. The pandemic, which has forced nearly all news conferences in sports to be held virtually, has accelerated the power shift, making the events that led to Ms. Osaka’s withdrawal from the tournament even more surprising.Sofia Kenin, the player of the year on the women’s tour in 2020, said she respected Ms. Osaka’s decision, and acknowledged that the pressures of being a young star are intense.“This is what you signed up for,” Ms. Kenin said. “This is sport. There’s expectations from the outside, sponsors and everyone. You just have to somehow manage it.”Ms. Osaka said she planned to take some time away from the tennis court. She did not specify whether she would play in the next Grand Slam tournament, Wimbledon, which begins in just four weeks, just two weeks after the conclusion of the French Open.Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament that is played on grass, another surface where Ms. Osaka’s performance has not matched her dominance on hard courts. She has never made it past the third round at Wimbledon, which is widely considered the most important championship in the sport.“I’ll see you when I see you,” she wrote to end her Instagram post.Michael Levenson in New York contributed reporting. More

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      At the French Open, Naomi Osaka Seeks Comfort on Clay and No Interviews

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      The world No. 2 has said she won’t talk to journalists at the tournament, which begins on Sunday, but she faces a bigger obstacle: her record on clay.PARIS — While other major players juggled practice and media commitments ahead of the French Open, Naomi Osaka focused only on practice this week.She was on court at Roland Garros early on Friday, hitting with the former No. 1 Angelique Kerber on the red clay, where Osaka does not feel entirely at ease. During breaks, she sat in a chair staring straight ahead as her coach, Wim Fissette, crouched by her side in conversation.The second-seeded Osaka is tennis’s biggest new star and now the highest-paid female athlete in the world, ahead of Serena Williams. Osaka has won four Grand Slam singles titles, two more than any other woman since 2018. But the French Open, the only Grand Slam tournament played on clay, will be a big challenge. She did not get past the third round in four previous appearances, and so she planned to approach the event differently: Osaka recently announced that, to protect her mental health, she would not “do any press” during the tournament, which begins Sunday.It remains unclear what her news-media abstention will entail. Osaka, who represents Japan and lives in the United States, is under contract with the Japanese broadcaster Wowow. Will she choose to speak with that network and other broadcasters? Will she give post-match interviews on court? Or will she simply choose to skip the traditional post-match news conference designed to serve a wide variety of outlets?Answers were not immediately forthcoming, and Stuart Duguid, her agent, declined to comment when asked for clarification. What is clear is that Osaka chose not to take part in the official media day on Friday, which made her the exception. The participants included the women’s No. 1, Ashleigh Barty; the reigning women’s champion, Iga Swiatek; and the 13-time men’s champion, Rafael Nadal. Already an immovable object at Roland Garros, Nadal now has a permanent presence after the unveiling this week of a steel statue of him ripping his trademark forehand.Nadal and his fellow players addressed numerous topics on Friday, and most were asked about Osaka’s decision. None criticized her choice, but all said they would take a different tack.Rafael Nadal, the No. 3 seed, practiced on Court Philippe Chatrier.Pete Kiehart for The New York Times“As sports people, we need to be ready to accept the questions and try to produce an answer, no?” Nadal said. “I understand her, but in the other hand, for me, without the press, without the people who normally are traveling, who are writing the news and achievements that we are having around the world, probably we will not be the athletes that we are today. We aren’t going to have the recognition that we have around the world, and we will not be that popular, no?”Nadal, who will turn 35 on Thursday, is a creature of habit who began giving interviews as a preteen prodigy. The landscape has changed dramatically since he won his first French Open title in 2005. Athletes now speak through social media, but the surprise announcement from Osaka, 23, is not all about a generation gap.Barty, from Australia, is 25, and Swiatek, from Poland, is 19. Both are past French Open champions, and both are big stars in their home countries.“In my opinion, press is kind of part of the job,” Barty said. “We know what we sign up for as professional tennis players. I can’t really comment on what Naomi is feeling or her decisions.”Worn down by expectations and the intensity of professional tennis, Barty took a nearly two-year break in her career before returning in 2016.“At times, press conferences are hard, of course, but it’s also not something that bothers me,” she said. “I’ve never had problems answering questions or being completely honest with you guys.”In a statement on Friday, the WTA emphasized how seriously it took the issue of mental health, but also stressed that media obligations are part of the job.“The WTA welcomes a dialogue with Naomi (and all players) to discuss possible approaches that can help support an athlete as they manage any concerns related to mental health, while also allowing us to deliver upon our responsibilities to the fans and public,” the statement said. “Professional athletes have a responsibility to their sport and their fans to speak to the media surrounding their competition, allowing them the opportunity to share their perspective and tell their story.”Swiatek, like the young Canadian Bianca Andreescu, has prioritized the mental side of her game, using sports psychology from an early age and hiring a performance psychologist, Daria Abramowicz, as part of her team.Swiatek said on Friday that she did not think taking part in news conferences was difficult or had affected her mental health.Iga Swiatek during hitting practice at the Australian Open with her performance psychologist, Daria Abramowicz.Alana Holmberg for The New York Times“I feel that the media is really important as well because they are giving us, you are giving us, a platform to talk about our lives and our perspective,” she said. “It’s also important, because not everybody is a professional athlete, and not everybody knows what we are dealing with on court. It’s good to speak about that. We have like two ways to do that: media and social media. It’s good to use both of these platforms and to educate people.”What social media lacks — unless an athlete chooses to regularly answer questions from followers — is dialogue.Tennis news conferences are not what they used to be. They are generally shorter and much lighter on inquiries about tactics, technique and the match that just finished. But they remain an opportunity for journalists to ask questions on any subject. They also allow a chance for those who report regularly about tennis to develop a rapport with the athletes and better understand their personalities, psyches and, as Swiatek smartly alluded to, their motivations and intentions.Billy Jean King, who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, said that she was torn over Osaka’s decision.“While it’s important that everyone has the right to speak their truth, I have always believed that as professional athletes we have a responsibility to make ourselves available to the media,” King wrote in an email. “In our day, without the press, nobody would have known who we are or what we thought. There is no question they helped build and grow our sport to what it is today. I acknowledge things are very different now with social media and everyone having an immediate ability to speak their truth. The media still play an important role in telling our story. There is no question that the media needs to respect certain boundaries. But at the end of the day, it is important we respect each other and we are in this together.”It is true that some of the world’s most prominent athletes do not give postgame interviews as a matter of course. Soccer players in Europe’s top leagues generally grant limited access. But top tennis players are hardly alone in speaking after every match. Star golfers usually are interviewed after each round. Top track and field athletes and Alpine skiers do interviews after each race. The Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, now retired, would win in less than 10 seconds and then spend half an hour or more running a gantlet of television, radio and print journalists.Osaka, with her long list of sponsors, has many new commercial partners who have a stake in her maintaining a high profile. But she already gives very few individual interviews and has reached a level of celebrity that she can probably maintain through social media, her sponsors and coverage of her matches.Osaka with members of her coaching staff at her practice Friday.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesOsaka is subject to a fine of up to $20,000 for each news conference she skips at Roland Garros. She explained in her announcement that she had seen many instances of players breaking down after a loss in the interview room. She said that players were often asked questions that “bring doubt into our minds, and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.”The doubts are legitimate, however, when it comes to her clay-court results.Osaka, who will play her first-round match on Sunday against Patricia Maria Tig, is a great hardcourt player but not yet a proven threat on clay or grass. She has won two United States Opens and two Australian Opens, all on cushioned acrylic hard courts. On clay, she has a career singles record of just 19-16 and has yet to reach a tour final. After winning the U.S. Open in 2020, Osaka skipped the French Open, which was postponed to September and October because of the pandemic. This year, in her only tournaments on clay, she lost in the second round and then in the first.“Her challenges are lack of confidence with sliding and movement, and her shots don’t carry as much weight on clay as on a hard court,” said Pam Shriver, the ESPN analyst who was a U.S. Open finalist in 1978. “Her serve is also not as much of a weapon.”Osaka, who tends to aggressively rip her returns, is prone to making more errors on clay than on hard courts, where the bounces are true and shots are easier to time correctly. Players like Swiatek and Barty get more net clearance on their groundstrokes than Osaka, and Barty can change pace and trajectories more effectively with her crisply sliced backhand.But power players with relatively flat groundstrokes and sliding issues have solved the clay-court riddle, particularly Maria Sharapova, who once derided herself as a “cow on ice” on the surface but ultimately won two French Opens.“It takes time to develop, and it takes many hours on the practice courts for you to feel that your weight is underneath you on clay,” said José Higueras, the veteran coach who guided Michael Chang and Jim Courier to French Open titles. “If you hit exactly the same ball on a hardcourt that is a pretty decent shot, on clay it may not be that decent, because the other player has a little more time to adjust.”On Sunday, Osaka will try again to adjust her game in Paris. Win or lose, she plans to skip the news conference, and though her decision has stirred resistance, it will also stir reflection. More