Osaka, Naomi (1997- )

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      A Delightful Glimpse Into Golf’s Secret World of Bitter Feuds

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      A moment ripe with loathing, shared between two large golfers, interrupts the game’s smooth surface.For those of us who follow golf, pleasure rarely comes as pure as it did a few weeks ago, when some golf-world insider leaked an unaired confrontation between the sport’s most notable warring hulks. Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are the P.G.A.’s No. 5 and No. 8 ranked players, respectively. Both are very beefy and very good — two figures on the leading edge of golf’s turn toward overwhelming power as the tactic of choice — and they have been openly feuding since 2019, when Koepka publicly complained about DeChambeau’s overly deliberate pace of play. Since then the rivals have badgered each other on Twitter to great comic effect, but an in-person confrontation, much longed for by fans, has proved elusive.Then the moment arrived. Koepka was being interviewed following his Friday round at the P.G.A. Championship at Kiawah Island, providing standard-issue responses to standard-issue questions about course conditions and putting surfaces. Suddenly DeChambeau’s massive figure materialized in frame, ambling behind him. DeChambeau appeared to say something while walking by — we still don’t know what — but his mere presence was enough to render the environment charged with animosity and turn the normally unflappable Koepka’s facial expressions into a symphony of malice. Within seconds, he was so discomposed that he could no longer continue the interview. “I lost my train of thought,” he fumed, and a flurry of expletives ensued. A sketch-comedy program would be hard pressed to conjure a funnier reaction shot than Koepka’s journey from annoyance to exasperation to exhaustion; his eyelids seemed forcibly pulled shut by the sheer magnitude of his disgust.It’s difficult to describe exactly why this burst of antagonism between large men was so enchanting to golf media. Part of the explanation has to do with the game’s by-design status as the most passive-​aggressive of televised sports. The magisterial slowness of the contest creates a false intimacy among competitors, who are often paired together, moving down the course in a dance as awkward as anything Larry David could concoct. To cover the sport is to know of a nontrivial number of players who wouldn’t cross the street to pour water on a fellow pro who erupted in flames. But owing to golf’s byzantine, Edith-Wharton-style bylaws of decorum, it verges on impossible to get any of them to come out and say this. So they maybe do other things to bug one another, like taking a ludicrous amount of time to line up a two-foot putt, or telling a playing partner “nice shot” after what is objectively a terrible shot, or chewing their granola bars extra loud. Once you’ve seen enough of this hidden needling, open hostility can feel like the ultimate forbidden fruit.The sport’s dread of confrontation is built on a century-old anthropologist’s dream of class-driven mores.Given that golf news not involving Tiger Woods remains essentially a niche concern, it came as a surprise to see the extent to which Koepka’s interview penetrated mainstream culture. National media reported on the incident with delight, and the clip was viewed millions of times online. Memes cropped up like ragweed. The whole affair even eclipsed the actual victor that week: Phil Mickelson, who at 50 became the oldest player ever to win a major championship. That achievement was, we thought, just about the biggest non-Tiger story the sport could generate. But Koepka’s expression, it seemed, tapped into something universal; his sheer annoyance transcended the game.A week later, over in the world of tennis, the biggest news of the 2021 French Open also emerged from outside the competition itself. Just before the tournament, the second-seeded Japanese superstar, Naomi Osaka, announced that she was unwilling to attend the event’s mandatory news conferences, citing feelings of depression and anxiety related to those obligations. And when officials pushed back, threatening punitive measures beyond the fines Osaka expected, she called their bluff, withdrawing from the tournament after her first-round victory. Not only did the Open lose an off-court stare-down with one of the sport’s premier attractions, but — in an echo of Mickelson’s win — hardly anyone was paying much attention to what was happening on the court itself. Tournament officials would clearly have preferred for all this to be ironed out behind closed doors, but as Osaka continued to prosecute her case on social media, the story spun further and further from their control.That’s what happened with the Brooks-Bryson face-off as well. After Koepka’s fusillade of swearing, the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, who was conducting the interview, joked that “we’re going to enjoy that in the TV compound later” — suggesting the segment would never make it to air, but would be shared among the media workers who make golf appear so well mannered. To which Koepka replied, “I honestly wouldn’t even care.”For those used to following rough-and-tumble team sports like football or hockey, it may be difficult to appreciate just how norm-breaking behavior like this can be. Even as the video dominated headlines, the sport’s old guard hastened to downplay it. No less an august figure than Jack Nicklaus dismissed the rivalry as “media driven,” which is true mostly in the sense that Koepka and DeChambeau have indeed repeatedly used the media to express how much they genuinely dislike each other. The sport’s dread of confrontation is built on a century-old anthropologist’s dream of class-driven mores, but if the popular reaction to Koepka’s face in that interview makes one thing clear, it’s that these golfers aren’t the ones acting weird. Golf itself is.Tennis, too. The French Open officials’ attempts to make Osaka comply with media rules are in some ways understandable: They have commitments to reporters and sponsors, and excusing one player from her obligations while requiring others to fulfill them could, arguably, create a competitive imbalance. (In the kind of development you could hardly make up, the tournament’s 11th-seeded player, Petra Kvitova, soon injured her ankle during a news conference and had to withdraw.) What feels strange is their evident belief that they could prevail at a time when their leverage has never been less in evidence. Osaka made some $50 million last year and first announced her refusal to do press to around 2.4 million followers on Instagram. She’s no great lover of clay courts, and it’s likely her expectations for success at the tournament were modest to begin with. And yet tennis apparatchiks seem to have assumed she would fall in line for the same reason golf ones presumed Koepka’s interview would be quietly passed around a private room: because that’s the done thing.All this suggests the two sports are having difficulty understanding both their audiences and their athletes. They proceed from the premise that their tissue-thin veneer of high-minded sportsmanship and sometimes incomprehensible notions of etiquette are celebrated attributes, not turnoffs. But evidence suggests the opposite. Fans don’t want pageantry; they want intimacy. Increasingly, the stories that grab the public are those that break up the placid, corporatized surface of the game — a tennis star who chooses self-care over a major, or two large golfers who seem ready to fistfight. We recognize the image-​crafting guardrails that surround every sport, and we perk up when we see them falling. Is this what happens when sports stop being polite and start getting real? More

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      French Tennis Chief Defends Handling of Naomi Osaka

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      “I think we did very, very well,” said Gilles Moretton, the new president of the French Tennis Federation. He has faced several challenges during the first French Open of his term.PARIS — Gilles Moretton, the president of the French Tennis Federation, removed his mask and leaned into the conversation across a vast table Tuesday morning at Roland Garros.Three months in, Moretton’s term is not exactly off to a flying start. The French Open, run by his organization, has been blessed with sunshine through most of its first 10 days, but not much else.Pandemic restrictions have reduced the number of spectators allowed on the grounds and cut deeply into revenue just as the federation needed to start paying back hundreds of millions of euros borrowed for the recent renovations at Roland Garros. For the first time in history, no French singles player made it past the second round. The biggest story of the tournament’s first 10 days has been not the matches played, some of them outstanding, but the ones never started.There was the second-round withdrawal of Naomi Osaka, the brightest rising star in the women’s game, following a disagreement with Moretton and other Grand Slam tournament leaders over media duties. Roger Federer, still the biggest draw in the men’s game at age 39, withdrew after three rounds to preserve his postoperative right knee and his energy for Wimbledon.But Moretton, who was once good enough to face Bjorn Borg at the French Open (taking a loss), did not bemoan his timing during an interview in the presidential box with a grand view of the main stadium, Philippe Chatrier Court, however empty.“I have come in at a time when the situation is very difficult because of the pandemic and the results in French tennis,” he said. “But at the same time I see that as an extraordinary opportunity. Because we have a saying that when you are at the bottom of the pool, you are bound to start heading back toward the surface.”Naomi Osaka during her first-round win at the French Open. She withdrew soon after.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesMoretton defended the handling of the second-seeded Osaka’s refusal to participate in news conferences and other mandatory media duties, an announcement she made through social media ahead of the French Open that caught the Grand Slam officials by surprise.Osaka’s initial announcement mentioned a need to preserve her mental health, without offering specifics. According to several tennis officials, Osaka did not respond to multiple requests to explain the situation further. She was fined $15,000 for skipping one post-match news conference in Paris. Moretton and the leaders of the three other Grand Slam tournaments — Wimbledon and the Australian and United States Opens — then issued a stern statement that warned of escalating penalties, including a potential expulsion from the tournament if she continued to abstain.“I think we did very, very well,” Moretton said, adding that the officials had hoped to avoid expelling Osaka. “The goal was not to penalize her. It was to say clearly: Here’s the rule.”Osaka withdrew the next day via social media, where she explained that she had experienced long bouts of depression since winning the U.S. Open in 2018.Rennae Stubbs, a former player who is a coach and an ESPN analyst, said the French federation had “handled this horribly.” She and other former players said the officials should have shown more sensitivity and avoided publicly threatening to penalize Osaka.“I think we would have kept giving her fines,” Moretton said. “I don’t think we would have gone to a tougher sanction, because we understood the situation. But it’s the rule. The rule is there to be fair to all the players.”Osaka has since announced that she would take a break of indeterminate length from the tour.Moretton, 63, said he was concerned about players’ mental health. “The problem she raised is a real problem, a real topic for discussion,” he said.But he said he was also concerned about preserving equal treatment among players and the news media’s ability to cover the sport.“Perhaps we will change the rules, and then everyone only comes to press if they want to,” Moretton said. “You will see that there are not many who will come.”“Everyone will be their own journalist,” he added, “speak when they want to speak, say what they want to say, respond only to questions they want to answer. And I think it’s a serious problem. So yes of course to measures that will provide help and support to players, but let’s keep the freedom of the press to ask a question that might be uncomfortable and that interests the public, who are the ones who provide a living for the athletes and the personalities.”Roger Federer in his third-round win over Dominik Koepfer on Saturday. Federer withdrew from the French Open the next day.Martin Bureau/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAs for Federer’s withdrawal, Moretton said he had “too much respect for Roger” to question his decision. Federer was not fined for the withdrawal. Guy Forget, the French Open tournament director, told the French news organization L’Équipe that Federer had cited his knee as an official medical reason for his withdrawal.“Everyone wants to see him play as long as possible,” Moretton said. “We know he will be 40 soon. It will be difficult. We can see it, and he knows it himself, and he needs to preserve himself.”Moretton is intent on building stronger links with the other Grand Slam tournaments and creating more unity that will give tennis leaders a stronger collective voice. The stern statement on Osaka was perhaps a product of that zeal.The French federation, under the previous president, Bernard Giudicelli, ruffled feathers within the sport last year by moving the start of the French Open from May to September without approval from other tennis entities. The tournament also was moved back a week this year, but Moretton insisted that was done in consultation with other tennis leaders.The one-week postponement this year was made to allow for more fans during the tournament’s second week, when French government restrictions were set to soften. The number of spectators allowed on the grounds will more than double from 5,300 to 13,000 on Wednesday and Thursday, and Moretton said there would be 5,000 spectators at Chatrier for both singles finals.The last night session without fans was on Tuesday, when the fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas beat the second-seeded Daniil Medvedev, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 7-5, in a quarterfinal.“Our match was match of the day, and Roland Garros preferred Amazon to people,” Medvedev said, referring to Amazon Prime Video, which has been broadcasting the night sessions in France.Revenue is still way down at an event that normally draws 38,000 spectators per day. In 2019, the tournament generated 260 million euros, or about $316 million. In 2020, it generated about 130 million euros, and Moretton said the numbers would be similar this year.“We are going to be hit hard,” he said.Government relief and loans and the federation’s ample reserves have helped soften the blow and, most important to Moretton, preserve financial support for tennis clubs and leagues in France.Moretton retired from the sports event management business and made two long treks to Nepal before being persuaded by friends to run for the federation’s presidency.Though he is from Lyon, he also considers Roland Garros home. At age 12, he slept in a tent on the grounds when he played in a national junior tournament. He later lived on site for a year, sharing a small house with other aspiring French pros, including Yannick Noah.Noah won the French Open in 1983, and stands as the last Frenchman to do so. Moretton will now try to help develop Noah’s successor and work to make the rest of his four-year term smoother than the start. More

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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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      Naomi Osaka and the Changing Power Dynamics in Sports

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      With relatively few words, she said a lot as she bowed out of the French Open on her terms, reflecting the growing empowerment of athletes.Thirteen sentences.That’s all we got from Naomi Osaka as she bowed out of the French Open on Monday after causing a ruckus over her plan to skip post-match news conferences. She did not speak those sentences. They were posted on her Instagram account. Nor did she provide anything like deep explanation. A global icon at age 23, Osaka left unclear when she would return to the women’s tour. She revealed for the first time that she had struggled with depression since beating Serena Williams in a controversy-cloaked final at the United States Open in 2018.Thirteen sentences.That was all she needed to rock the sports world and to provide another lesson in the increasing power of athletes to own their message and set their terms.She waded briefly into the water, made a splash and stepped away.Using social media posts, first last Wednesday then on Monday, Osaka called out one of the most traditional practices in major sports: the obligatory news conference, vital to reporters seeking insight for their stories, but long regarded by many elite athletes as a plank walk.After monumental wins and difficult losses, Osaka has giggled and reflected through news conferences and also dissolved into tears. In Paris, she said she wanted nothing to do with the gatherings because they had exacted a steep emotional toll.So in her slim posts she sent a message with significant weight:The days of the Grand Slam tournaments and the huge media machine behind them holding all of the clout are done.In a predominantly white, ritual-bound sport, a smooth-stroking young woman of Black and Asian descent, her confidence still evolving on and off the court, holds the power.Get used to it.Intentionally or not, Osaka stands at the leading edge of a broad, transformational movement in athlete empowerment. What she does with this role will say a great deal about the power shift, for better or worse.This much is clear. By walking away from the French Open as she did, Osaka became an obsession in the sports world and far beyond.Pundits, fans, fellow players and people who typically care little about athletes are analyzing her motivations. They worry about her future in tennis and, of course, her mental health.They project what they want onto her and argue accordingly.Some commentators say the press goes too far in dissecting athletes. Others say that Osaka is somehow symbolic of a new, far-too-coddled breed of star.Still others suggest she struggles from being racially isolated, the rare champion of color in a tennis world dominated by fans, officials and a press corps that is overwhelmingly white.One social media post, assessing Osaka’s refusal to play beyond the first round of the French Open, compared her to Malcolm X.And yet, once again, as befits a celebrity in our times, Osaka hewed to a minimalist approach. Thirteen sentences, just under 350 words, are all that exist for fans and foes to parse.It is impossible to know the depth of Osaka’s internal anguish.But we do know she has had difficulty coping on the world stage at a young age.“The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open of 2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that,” she wrote, before noting that she often wears headphones during tournaments to “dull my social anxiety.”She arrived in France committed to drawing a line and engaging in a power play with tennis officials who have a difficult time with anything that disrupts the status quo.When Osaka took to social media last week and announced she wasn’t going to attend post-match news conferences, the game’s power brokers got their backs up, fined her $15,000 and threatened her with suspension.Did she quit to get back at them, to show that she has the clout, and not them?We don’t know because Osaka didn’t elaborate, and she definitely isn’t speaking to reporters.That’s fitting — and unnerving to a journalist — because like so many of the biggest stars in modern sports, Osaka is now much more than an athlete.She lives in the world of celebrity inhabited by her idol, Serena Williams. Osaka is famed not just for the four Grand Slam titles she has won since 2018 or because the $37.4 million she earned in the past year made her the highest-paid female athlete in the world.Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam tournament champion, holds the No. 2 singles ranking.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesHer background — raised primarily in the United States by a Japanese mother and an Afro-Haitian father — gives her a potent allure. Add to the mix a disarming personality and a willingness to enter the fray on social issues that emerged during the pandemic, and she has become tennis’s newest supernova.So it comes as no surprise that she feels less need to deal with the traditional press.Such is the way of the modern celebrity — be they an athlete, an entertainer, a business tycoon or a political leader. They are all looking for workarounds, ways to tell their stories as they prefer, usually in short bursts, offering small tendrils of their lives and their opinions, their triumphs and pain, often without the depth that comes from great journalism.It wasn’t always this way. Think about the powerful insights Muhammad Ali gave in interviews with David Frost — meditations in which Ali opened up about race, power, civil rights and the Vietnam War. In tennis, Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe would speak at length about the most pressing topics. You knew not only where they stood, but also about their motivations, the evolution of their thinking and their visions of the future.Athletes still speak out, but they tend to do so on their own terms — very often limited to 280 characters on Twitter.One of the highlights of sports in 2020 was Osaka’s willingness to go against the grain in tennis and take a stand against racial injustice. She decided not to play one day at a tournament last summer to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, saying on social media, “Before I am an athlete, I am a black woman.”Point made. Message delivered. The tournament paused for a day, allowing Osaka to keep her promise without defaulting.She then went to the U.S. Open and again seized the conversation. This time it was with the masks she wore — adorned with the names of Black victims ofracist violence — as she took to the court for each of the seven matches she played on her way to winning the tournament.“What was the message you wanted to send?” she was asked.“Well, what was the message that you got?” she replied, in a way that was heartfelt, simple and profound. “I feel like the point is to make people start talking.”And that was it. She seized the moment with a snippet, directed the conversation by giving up little, and by turning the question back on itself.What was the message that you got? What do you, the fan, the reporter in the media scrum, the casual observer, see in me?Whatever it is, deal with it.She said much the same this week in Paris, delivered this time in 13 spare sentences. A strong statement, no doubt, and one that fits with the tone and technology of the present day, but count me among those who want to hear more. 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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      Naomi Osaka Skips News Conference, Drawing Tennis Officials’ Ire

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      The heads of the Grand Slam events warned Osaka of escalating penalties, including default, if she continued to not “do press,” as she vowed she would not last week.PARIS — Naomi Osaka’s return to the French Open was triumphant as she won her first-round match over Patricia Maria Tig on Sunday in straight sets. But Osaka did not emerge unscathed from the tournament’s opening day.She was fined $15,000 by Rémy Azémar, the French Open tournament referee, for declining to appear at a mandatory postmatch news conference and warned that she risked stronger penalties, including default from the tournament, if she continued not to fulfill her media obligations.That surprisingly stern warning was delivered in a statement signed by the leaders of the four Grand Slam tournaments: Gilles Moretton, the new president of the French Tennis Federation; Mike McNulty, the new head of the United States Tennis Association; Jayne Hrdlicka, the head of Tennis Australia; and Ian Hewitt, chairman of the All England Club, which runs Wimbledon.The Grand Slam events’ leaders also emphasized that repeat violations by Osaka could lead to “more substantial fines and future Grand Slam suspensions.”Osaka, a four-time major singles champion who is one of the sport’s biggest stars, is now faced with a choice. Before the French Open began, she announced that she would not do “any press” during the tournament, citing the need to preserve her “mental health” by avoiding repetitive and potentially negative questions from journalists.But if the intent was to limit distractions and find inner calm, she now faces a potentially bigger concern in Paris if she continues to abstain from news conferences.“It’s developed into a power struggle,” said Chris Evert, an 18-time Grand Slam singles champion who is covering the French Open as an analyst for Eurosport. “Press conferences are crucial to Grand Slams to get the players’ perspective of their match, and it’s a collective responsibility for players to continue to grow the sport. I think we’ve lost sight of the early days, the ’70s, when there was no women’s tour, and that generation talked endlessly to the press to promote the sport and themselves. The players today are making a tremendous amount of money, and there are trade-offs.”The Grand Slam leaders expressed frustration with Osaka’s lack of engagement with tennis officials, explaining in their statement that the French Open management team had “tried unsuccessfully to speak with her to check on her well-being, understand the specifics of her issue and what might be done to address it on site.”The Grand Slam leaders said they had written jointly to Osaka to remind her of her obligations and of the consequences she faced for not complying with the rules. The leaders also emphasized the importance of equal treatment.“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 statement said. “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 honour their commitments.”Leading players such as Andre Agassi, Novak Djokovic and Venus and Serena Williams have skipped news conferences after defeats and been fined. But this is the first instance of a top player making it clear in advance that she did not intend to speak with the news media during a Grand Slam tournament.Osaka, who is based in the United States and represents Japan, is the world’s highest-paid female athlete, with the bulk of her earnings coming from sponsorships. She has raised her profile not simply by winning major titles but by advocating social justice; she wore masks that honored Black victims of violence, including police violence, after matches at last year’s United States Open.Fabrice Santoro, an on-court interviewer at the French Open, asked to talk to Osaka after she won her first-round match on Sunday.Julian Finney/Getty Images“Naomi certainly makes us think and examine the status quo,” Evert said on Sunday. “I respect Naomi and what she’s done for social issues and for the game but everyone needs to communicate and come up with a solution.”Tennis leaders followed Osaka’s lead last August when she withdrew from the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open to protest racial injustice, tournament organizers called off all play that day in a show of solidarity. She played her semifinal, but there is clearly less consensus this time, suggesting that Osaka may have misread the room. The Grand Slam tournaments even brandished the possibility of a “major offense” investigation if she continued to break the rules, which could lead to further fines or suspension from future Grand Slam tournaments. The grounds for such sanctions would be the rule that defines a major offense as “a series of two or more” violations of the code of conduct within a 12-month period, which “when viewed together establish a pattern of conduct that is collectively egregious and is detrimental or injurious to the Grand Slam tournaments.”Repeatedly skipping news conferences could be considered a pattern of conduct. Evert said tennis leaders and Osaka should meet and work through the issues before “this blows up anymore.”Osaka has had, in general, a positive relationship with the news media. But in her announcement on social media ahead of the French Open, she said, “I have often felt that people have no regard for athletes mental health, and this rings very true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one.” She focused in particular on players being required to speak after defeats.Osaka, whose decision caught some members of her own support team by surprise, did not say whether she was experiencing a specific mental-health issue, but she made it clear in her social media posts that she felt strongly about taking a stand. “If the organizations think that they can just keep saying, ‘do press or you’re gonna be fined’ and continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that are the centerpiece of their cooperation then I just gotta laugh.”The Grand Slam leadership said on Sunday that players’ mental health was “of the utmost importance to the Grand Slams.”“We individually and collectively have significant resources dedicated to player well-being,” the statement said. “In order to continue to improve, however, we need engagement from the players to understand their perspective and find ways to improve their experiences.No leading player has yet expressed publicly a desire to follow Osaka’s lead by skipping news conferences. The main draws of the previous generation — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic and Serena Williams — have regularly answered questions after each match despite becoming global stars.There is concern among tennis leaders that Osaka could set a precedent at a time when social media has given stars a broad platform to reach the public directly. But the Grand Slam leaders emphasized that the news media still played an important role.“A core element of the Grand Slam regulations is the responsibility of the players to engage with the media, whatever the result of their match, a responsibility which players take for the benefit of the sport, the fans and for themselves,” their statement said. “These interactions allow both the players and the media to share their perspective and for the players to tell their story. The facilitation of media to a broad array of channels, both traditional and digital, is a major contributor to the development and growth of our sport and the fan base of individual players.”Osaka’s next match is on Wednesday against Ana Bogdan of Romania.Pete Kiehart for The New York TimesOsaka was not silent after her 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over Tig on the main Philippe Chatrier Court on Sunday. She answered three questions from the on-court interviewer, Fabrice Santoro, after the match and a few more queries on her way off the court from Wowow, the Japanese broadcaster with whom she is under contract.But she declined all other television requests and skipped the news conference. After earning more than $55 million in the last year, she can afford the $15,000 fine and other fines that might come her way. The bigger question is whether she wants to risk jeopardizing her participation in the French Open. She has struggled on clay and never advanced past the third round in Paris, but the tournament remains one of the pillars of the sport.The next chance to escalate or defuse the tension comes in the second round on Wednesday against Ana Bogdan of Romania. More

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      2021 French Open: What to Watch on Sunday Morning

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      Opening round matches feature Naomi Osaka and Dominic Thiem, who are both pursuing their first French Open title.How to watch: 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time on the Tennis Channel and noon to 3 p.m. on Peacock; streaming on the Tennis Channel+ and Peacock apps.In 2020, the French Open was played in October, rescheduled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, back in the usual spring slot and with friendlier weather, the red clay welcomes a full field. The first round of play is spread across three days of competition, with plenty of excellent matches to watch.Here are some matches to keep an eye on.Because of the number of matches cycling through courts, the times for individual matchups are estimates and may fluctuate based on when earlier play is completed. All times are Eastern.COURT PHILIPPE-CHATRIER | 5 a.m. SundayNaomi Osaka vs. Patricia Maria TigNaomi Osaka, the second seed, has won the previous two Grand Slam events that she has played, the United States Open in 2020 and the Australian Open in February. In between, she passed on the fall edition of the French Open, watching from home as Iga Swiatek swept through the field to win her first Grand Slam. Osaka’s powerful baseline play has never fared well on clay. She has never reached the final of a clay court tournament, and has never made it past the third round at Roland Garros.Patricia Maria Tig, ranked No. 63, has never made it to the second week of a Grand Slam event, but her only WTA Tour title came on clay at the Istanbul Open in 2020. A back injury forced Tig to the sidelines in 2018, but she has worked her way back up the rankings. For Tig to cause a first-round upset, she will have to exploit Osaka’s discomfort on clay and keep her from settling into a rhythm that allows Osaka to rely on her blazing forehand.Dominic Thiem listens to his coach Nicolas Massu. He has reached the French Open final twice.Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesCOURT PHILIPPE-CHATRIER | 7 a.m. SundayDominic Thiem vs. Pablo AndujarDominic Thiem, the fourth seed, has reached the final of the French Open twice before, losing on both occasions to Rafael Nadal. Recently, however, Thiem has demonstrated unusually poor form. When asked about the potential for a deep run, he said, “I think the way I’m coming into that tournament, the way I also played the past weeks, the only thing I can focus on is the first round, I shouldn’t focus at all on who is in my quarter or even who is in my half.”Pablo Andujar may be the perfect opponent for the occasion. Andujar, ranked No. 68, is a clay court specialist, with all nine of his ATP finals, including four titles, coming on the surface. Last week, he beat Roger Federer in the second round of the Geneva Open before reaching the semifinals where he lost to the eventual champion, Casper Ruud.The five-set format of the Grand Slam tournaments significantly favors Thiem. Even if he is struggling, Thiem will have a lot of time to adjust to Andujar’s grinding style of play. Longer points will allow him to establish a steadier rhythm.COURT PHILIPPE-CHATRIER | 10 A.m. SundayVictoria Azarenka vs. Svetlana KuznetsovaSome matchups seem to be pulled from previous eras. When longtime tennis fans see them in the early rounds of a Grand Slam, they feel joy that only a matchup heavy with history can offer.Victoria Azarenka and Svetlana Kuznetsova are both two-time Grand Slam champions who debuted on the WTA tour in the early 2000s. They have faced each other 10 times over the past 14 years, and each is deeply familiar with the arsenal of shots that they will need to overcome.However, neither has played extensively on clay before the French Open. Azarenka withdrew from the Madrid Open in the second round, citing fitness issues, while Kuznetsova has not played a single clay court event this year. This match may come down to who can most quickly adapt their powerful baseline shots to the crushed red brick of Roland Garros.Fabio Fognini of Italy plays with an intensity that can go either way.Laurent Gillieron/EPA, via ShutterstockCourt Suzanne-Lenglen | 5 A.m. SundayFabio Fognini vs. Gregoire BarrereFabio Fognini, the 27th seed, is a volatile player. At last year’s French Open, Fognini lost in the first round but has reached the round of 16 in three of his last six Grand Slam events. Often, his matches can be decided by his intensity; a double-edged sword that can produce wild unforced errors or powerful forehand winners.Gregoire Barrere received a wild-card entry into the French Open, a perk that pleases each of the national federations that host a Grand Slam event. Barrere, ranked No. 122, has never been past the second round of a major tournament, understandable for a player who has often had to push through qualifying rounds.While Fognini will be heavily favored, a home crowd rooting against the Italian may unsettle him. At the least, it should be an entertaining match with plenty of spectator spirit. Fan capacity will be at 35 percent over the first 10 days of the tournament, and will increase to 65 percent for the quarterfinals and beyond.Here are a few more matches to keep an eye on.Márton Fucsovics vs. Gilles Simon; Court Simonne-Mathieu, 7 a.m. SundayAryna Sabalenka vs. Ana Konjuh; Court Suzanne Lenglen, 10 a.m. SundayCorentin Moutet vs. Laslo Dere; Court Simonne-Mathieu, 10 a.m. SundayAmanda Anisimova vs. Veronika Kudermetova; Court 9, 1 p.m. Sunday More