Jill Craybas calls Naomi Osaka BOLD for Talking

Jill Craybas calls Naomi Osaka BOLD for Talking

Jill Craybas, Naomi Osaka

Jill Craybas is a former American professional tennis player. She has 1 WTA and 4 ITF singles titles to her name and 5 WTA and 1 ITF doubles titles. Her highest ranking according to the Women’s Tennis Association was World No.39 and doubles ranking was World No.41.

Craybas is best known for her 2005 defeat of Serena Williams in the third round of Wimbledon. She took retirement from tennis in 2013.

Recently in Tennis Talk Podcast Jill expressed her views on Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka. According to her what Naomi said about mental health was absolutely correct and along with physical, mental health of players should also be taken care of.

Jill on Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka

Naomi became the talk of the town before the French Open when she refused to attend any press conference at the Grand Slam. Because of this she was even fined and threatened so Naomi withdrew from the tournament citing mental health issues.

Later Naomi also withdrew from the Wimbledon. Seeing her, American gymnast Simone Biles pulled out his name from a number of events at the Tokyo Olympics, citing mental health reasons.

On this step of Osaka, Jill thought it was very ‘bold’ of her to speak about mental health publicly. She thinks that Naomi’s stand on mental health has allowed many other players to speak about their mental health.

“I always felt when she was in her media conferences, it was always a bit of like a quirky conversation. I got the sense that she is a little bit introverted but likes to express herself on social media where you felt like you got to know her a little bit more, you could see her character a little bit, it was intriguing to see her come out and say that that has a tough impact on her.” Jill said

“I think it was very bold of her to come out and make it (mental health) sort of a really big talking point. I felt like its been there in the athletic world where it is something that affects a lot of athletes but wasn’t talked about as much as it is now. More athletes have started and have talked about mental health. It’s definitely something to talk about and it’s good to see that athletes are expressing it. This allows people to relate to them a little bit more,” she said.

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