Japan’s Naomi Osaka announced Monday she was withdrawing from the French Open in the wake of her decision to boycott post-match media duties at the Grand Slam tournament.
“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,” the four-time Grand Slam title winner wrote on Twitter.
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) May 31, 2021
Osaka was fined $15,000 on Sunday by Grand Slam organizers for failing to attend a news conference following her first-round win against Romanian Patricia Maria Tig.
In the run-up to the claycourt major, the four-time Grand Slam champion and sport’s highest-earning female athlete announced she would boycott news conferences while in Paris to raise awareness of players’ mental well-being, saying the nature of questions from journalists is like “kicking a person when they are down”.
Earlier, the board of the four Grand Slams said in a statement that the French Open organizers had asked Osaka to reconsider her position and tried unsuccessfully to speak with her to resolve the matter.
