Naomi Osaka showed some resiliency during her recent loss to Veronika Kudermetova at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
ABC News reported that during the match, a woman in the crowd shouted “Naomi, you suck,” which happened during the first set.
Osaka’s request to remove the spectator and address the crowd during the match was denied by the umpire, according to Yahoo.
After the match, Osaka addressed the crowd, applauded Kudermetova and stated how she felt being criticized by fans, which she said also happened to Serena and Venus Williams at the same event in 2001, according to Yahoo.
“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before, it didn’t really bother me,” Osaka said, according to an ABC News video. “But (being) heckled here, I watched a video of Venus and Serena (Williams) getting heckled here, and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it. I don’t know why, but it went into my head, and it got replayed a lot. I’m trying not to cry.”
Osaka left last summer’s French Open citing mental health and has been backed by some of the biggest names in the sport such as Serena Williams and Billie Jean King.
“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,” she wrote on Twitter after the incident.
Osaka added that she is an introvert who battles social anxiety and would be taking a break from the sport to address her issues.
