‘What Naomi Osaka has done is detrimental to sport, to tennis, and to her probably’: Top French Tennis Official
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Naomi Osaka
Gilles Moretton is the President of the French Tennis Federation. Moretton had replaced Bernard Giudicelli and had come to power only in February this year, and just a few months into the job he is already in hot waters.
As the President of the French tennis federation, the onus is on him to contain this huge controversy that is erupting around Naomi Osaka and her decision of not wanting to be a part of any press conferences at French Open 2021.
Gilles Moretton takes a dig at Naomi Osaka
Gilles Moretton has not tried to take a diplomatic stance with this one. He has come out and expressed his disapproval of the incident and called it a phenomenal mistake. He thinks that there are rules in place and one has to follow them.
Moretton said, “It’s a deep regret, for you journalists, for her (Naomi Osaka) personally and for tennis in general. I think this is a phenomenal mistake. It shows to what extent today (the need) that there is strong governance in tennis. What is happening there is, in my opinion, not acceptable. There are rules, laws. We will stick to the laws and rules for penalties and fines.”
Moretton thinks what is happening right now is that everything is taking focus away from Tennis, and that is not right. He says all the Tennis bodies must make sure that the focus never goes away from tennis. He ended by saying that this move by Naomi Osaka will hurt sports, tennis and even her own image.
Moretton said, “ Beyond that, it is tennis that we want to promote, all together. With ATP, WTA, ITF and the four Grand Slams, there is real thinking. This is a phenomenon that does not exist in Formula 1 for example. A driver does not stop in the middle of the championship to say, I have already won and I will not continue It is a general problem that we must solve, at least worry about it.” He concluded, “ It is very detrimental to sport, to tennis, to her probably. She hits the game, she hurts tennis. This is a real problem.”
The Naomi Osaka vs French Open controversy so far
Naomi Osaka on the eve of French open 2021 had announced via Twitter that she was not going to attend any of the mandatory press conferences at the event and she was willing to pay the fire for it.
The next day her official email to the French open authorities was leaked by one Jon Wertheim who is Sports Illustrated Executive Editor and Senior Writer. In the meantime the French Tennis Federation President Gilles Moretton and Tournament director Guy Forget have both criticized this move by Osaka. This saga is far from over.
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Auri Ghosh
(652 Articles Published)