“She doesn’t want to play tennis,” Former Wimbledon winner Marion Bartoli asks Naomi Osaka to solve her off-court problems following her disappointing 2022 season
Japanese star Naomi Osaka chosen as the disappointing player of the year for her underwhelming 2022 season by renowned journalists.
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Former World No 1 Naomi Osaka is one of the upcoming stars of the sport. She has managed to cement her place among the elites. However, the 4-time Grand Slam champion had an abrupt ending to her 2022 season as she played only 23 matches. The Japanese star registered a 14-9 win-loss record in the year. The guest speakers on a talk show unanimously picked her as the disappointing player of the season.
Though Osaka hasn’t had much success, she ended the year with one of the best first-serve percentages. She has always talked about giving equal importance to mental health as well as physical health. True to her beliefs, she opened up about battling mental health issues and how she is learning to cope with the challenges which sometimes affect her game.
Renowned journalists Simon Cambers, and Carole Bouchard along with former tennis player Marion Bartoli were present for one of the episodes of Match Points. They stated that her off-court decisions impact her on-court performances. The former French player stated that she is handling a lot of responsibilities that complicate her situation.
“She’s the most disappointing player of the year and not just because of the tennis but also because of what she does on the side,” said Cambers. “It’s because of her mind. Because of everything she does off the court. Osaka has too many things outside of tennis, it’s complicated for her,” said Bartoli.
“She has the right to not like playing anymore and to be done with tennis. She has the right to love writing her children’s books and having a business, of course, even an entrepreneur, that’s not the problem. Nevertheless, in this case, it must be made clear, ‘I don’t want to be a tennis player anymore, I don’t care’. It would also be clear to sponsors like that,” said the third guest on the latest episode of Match Points.
Naomi Osaka suffers massive losses in her FTX investments
Despite no title this year on the WTA Tour, Osaka still earned a whopping $57.3 million. She topped Forbes’ list of the highest-paid female athlete for the third time in a row. Due to her various endorsements, Naomi Osaka surpassed Serena Williams who earns $45.9 million, and Venus Williams with $11.3 million. She finds herself on the list of ‘100 Women Changemakers’ because of vocalizing over various issues like Black Lives Matter.
The Australian Open champion suffered financial losses due to her investments in cryptocurrency. FTX underwent a massive crash in the market affecting all of its holders. Naomi Osaka made the investment in FTX in March 2022. She has been looked upon as an ambassador to bring in more women due to her popularity.
Osaka’s deal also included making content to promote the cryptocurrency. But she found herself in the class action lawsuit filed by investors for a whopping $11 billion as the company suffered a nearly 70% loss. Osaka has remained silent and has not even addressed the issue or whether she will respect her ‘long-term deal’.
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Prateek Pradhan
(601 Articles Published)