Naomi Osaka withdraws from Wimbledon but says she’ll be ready for the Olympics
Naomi Osaka’s mental health breather will last a little bit longer.
The tennis star announced Thursday that she’ll be skipping Wimbledon, just weeks after pulling out of the French Open and declaring she needed some time for herself.
“She is taking some personal time with friends and family,” her team said in a statement.
But the four-time Grand Slam singles champion said she plans to be ready for the Olympics, which are scheduled to kick off on July 24 amid a cloud of COVID-19-related controversies.
Last month, Osaka revealed that she has been struggling with depression since the U.S. Open in 2018, specifically pointing to her use of headphones at tournaments to help “dull my social anxiety.”
The personal revelation came after Osaka announced that she would skip the customary press conference in Paris ahead of the French Open.
“I’ve 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 wrote at the time.
“I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me. I’ve watched many clips of athletes breaking down after a loss in the press room and I know you have as well. I believe that whole situation is kicking a person while they’re down and I don’t understand the reasoning behind it.”
All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton, one of the Wimbledon organizers, told the BBC hours before Osaka’s announcement that they had been in touch with her team about playing.
Rafael Nadal also pulled out of Wimbledon Thursday, saying he was “listening to my body.”
