"Naomi won’t be playing Wimbledon this year," the
statement read. "She is taking some personal time with friends and family.
She will be ready for the Olympics and is excited to play in front of her home
fans."
The summer Olympics begin on July 23.
This is the third tournament the women's No. 2 ranked tennis
player will miss after withdrawing from the French Open and opting out of a
Wimbledon warmup tournament in Berlin.
Wimbledon begins on June 28 and runs through July 11. The
season's third Grand Slam tournament ends less than two weeks prior to the
opening ceremony of the Summer Games.
As a native of Japan, Osaka became the face of the Tokyo
Olympics when she was featured in one of the first promos last February, before
the Games were rescheduled due to COVID-19.
Osaka made headlines in late May when she withdrew from the
French Open after her refusal to participate in scheduled pre-tournament media
availability created a rift between her and tournament officials.
Prior to her start in the tournament, Osaka announced that
she would not participate in the mandatory press conferences due to “no regard
for athletes mental health.” She won her first-round match against Romania’s Patricia
Maria Tig, and despite speaking during a short on-court interview, she did not
attend the postgame conference.
She was fined $15,000 by the French Tennis Federation and
risked additional fines and possible expulsion from the French Open if she
missed more media opportunities. Osaka withdrew from the tournament altogether
shortly after. On the Monday after her first-round win, she released a
statement on social media explaining her reasoning for the withdraw.
“I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my
timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer,” said Osaka. “More
importantly I would never trivialize mental health or use that term lightly.
The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in
2018 and I have had a really hard time coping with that.”
Osaka further explained how required media availability
impacts her social anxiety and creates additional stress for her during
tournaments.
One week after her French Open announcement, tournament
organizers for the bett1open in Berlin confirmed that Osaka would not compete.
Her withdrawal from Berlin immediately raised questions about whether Osaka
would participate at Wimbledon.
Osaka, who is touted as one of the best tennis players of
her generation, has won both the U.S. Open (2018, 2020) and Australian Open
(2019, 2021) twice but has never done better than the third round at either the
French Open or Wimbledon. If Osaka competes in Tokyo, it would be the first
Olympics for the four-time Grand Slam champion. She would represent the host
country during the Games.
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