It always feels nice to get some redemption. That's helped me snap out of the little bit of a lull. It's been a long trip here in Europe and, as I described in my previous column, it has not been the easiest.īut, since losing to Elise Mertens in the singles third round, it has been nice to get a couple of wins in the doubles alongside my regular partner Coco Gauff. How doubles with Coco gets me out of a lull We wouldn't want to lose that.īut it has to be the right balance and the player has to feel safe. Of course, speaking to the media is important for growing the sport and connecting with fans. I think the tournament is now more flexible because of what happened with Naomi. Luckily there was only one person who asked for a couple of quotes so I gave them to the WTA anyway without having to do an open news conference. It's the right of the press to ask the questions they want to ask, but also it is her right not to answer them if she doesn't want to answer them.Īfter I had a really tough loss in the singles on Friday, I was not really in the mood to speak to the media. She has been hammered with questions about the war in Ukraine and Belarus' support of Russia. Sabalenka still found a way to do press, giving quotes to the Women's Tennis Association, which were then distributed to other reporters. What Naomi did alerted people to the possibility of doing what Sabalenka did and for the tournament to work ways around it. I guess the French Open are now being more empathetic about players' mental health needs surrounding press conferences. Two years ago there was a similar issue when Naomi Osaka did not want to speak to the media to protect her mental health. On Sunday night, Aryna Sabalenka pulled out of doing a post-match open news conference for the second round running after saying she did not feel safe in a previous one. A hot topic again at this year's French Open has been players not speaking to the media after matches to protect their mental health.
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