I have Badosa in the QF

Musetti has the best drop shot on tour. He just hit a perfect dropper while backpedaling 2 steps behind the baseline.

edit: and now he just dropped a bagel on goffin

I feel it probably is mental health. She’s prolly super emotionally weak. Heard she didn’t like the criticism of her play on clay I guess which I’m not sure why you would even care if you won a slam.

She should just use some money and hire a good shrink to help her understand she doesn’t need to take what the media says or fans so seriously. Btw anyone think she’s a little out there? I feel she could have aspergers or somewhere on the autistic scale. That’s not a bad thing but her on court convos are so odd. She talks in a monotone voice and can’t really banter with an on court reporter. I find her speech pattern and lack of any enthusiasm as super odd. Probably just super shy and has no social awareness but it’s odd that a pro athlete wouldn’t be coached to handle interviews/ the media in a better manner.

She’s withdrew. If it wasn’t the fo she wouldn’t have done it.

Wow. That's got to be a first, right?

Withdrawing from a grand slam because you don't want to do the interviews.

Just don't play the tournament at all if doing interviews is too much for you to handle. Good job wasting a spot in the tournament that could've been taken by someone who actually gives a ****.

This statement is ridiculous.

"Gee wiz I had no idea that if I, the highest paid female athlete on earth, suddenly announced I won't do any press and accused the powers that be of not caring about mental health, that it would become a story that people would want to talk about."

An amazing level of self-unawareness from someone who claims to be so self conscious.

Normally I would lol an athlete for this, however. I think it makes sense to take a step back and realize athletes who are in solo sports at a young age have a mountainous task that maybe didn't exist 20-30 years ago. At least in a team sport you have your teammates, coaches etc to deflect the attention. Idk just a thought.

She makes $50+million/year. She can easily afford a team of coaches, agents, managers, publicists, psychologists, and anyone else she wants.

i don't get why she doesn't just go full beast mode

Oh wow there's lights at RG now. The tennis courts at public parks in my nieghborhood have had lights for 30 years, but at WOATslam RG it's a new thing and a big deal.

Yeah.

What is curious about Osaka’s behavior is that she is one, of few, who doesn’t seem to wilt to Serena’s pressure in tight spots. It seems like she is incredibly tough on the court, mentally.

You have to start with criticising her clay court game in the media before hand - supposedly according to the tennis pod that’s kick started the entire thing. She didn’t like that someone analysed her clay game.

Absolutely pathetic from her. It’s actually annoyed me. Withdrawing because she didn’t think it’d be talked about is an entire different ball game as well.

Could have even done interviews like Ronnie O’Sullivan. There’s so many options.

That’s excellent.

A few more different styles for those that don’t follow football or snooker

Here for the Osaka pile on. The most annoying thing is she could have raised the level of the conversation about mental health by just withdrawing for "mental health reasons" rather than first presenting a list of unreasonable demands.

I'm a big advocate for parity between mental and physical health in both understanding and treatment. However, to get there people need to act in good faith. If you are not fit to complete either mentally or physically, you take a step back and get treatment until you are healed.

I def feel it’s mental health. Have you ever heard of a pro athlete really complaining about talking to the media? That’s just kinda odd from my viewpoint. I feel it’s kinda douchey she’s withdrawing- she basically took a spot from someone and have a walkover to who she was playing next which is somewhat advantageous for that person.

I feel “normal” people don’t understand mental health problems though. Even myself, I feel I have low self esteem, etc and even I kinda bash her for what she’s doing. Idk how she feels or what inner demons she may have etc etc. I feel it’s really bad for people that don’t battle any mental health problems to chime in bc they have no idea what someone else is going through. Just bc you are normal etc, doesn’t mean everyone else feels the same way or has that feeling as a baseline.

I think she should have withdrawn prior to the tournament though if this was her plan all along. I think it’s pretty unfair to other players to just kill a spot for another journeyman pro that needs the opportunity to play in a slam. It’s very odd she wouldn’t see a shrink to help her with any problems she is having also a she’s loaded. Just my two cents. Personally, I don’t like her based on her on court interviews. I find it funny how she stood up for BLM etc but now is acting weak as f. So many people would kill to be a pro athlete and have a convo with the press really doesn’t seem too difficult in the grand scheme of life.

Naomi was probably worried about losing to Badosa. Naomi has never won 5 matches total in one season at the French Open and Wimbledon, this year was not going to be any different.

I like her but feel that she has gone about this the wrong way. I 100% sympathise with the pathetic treatment she received at the 2018 US Open from arguably the worst set of tennis fans in the world. Let's not forget that that all stemmed from yet another Serena Williams hissy fit.

Stress can pile up, avoiding the media was probably just a bandaid. That said just eliminating stressful things is (sometimes) a reasonable solution.

What on earth is this Rafa?

Went for a walk and come back and he's away to lose a set??!?!?!

Butnahhh.

Rafa in RG is the single most remarkable feat in sports history. Incomparable domination

Meh,

Raymond Ceulemans has won 35 world tiles.
Heather McKay won everything and went 20 years without losing.
Esther Vergeer Won 21/21 slams she entered, unbeaten in 10 years.
Jahangir Khan Longest consecutive winning run in top level sport.

There’s loads

I actually kind of know Raymond and I doubt even he would put his 35 titles in the same league as Rafa's accomplishments at Roland Garros.

wow, now it's Barty that has chosen to not do interviews

ie. she has retired from her R2 match