Conversation continues
Mental health discussion remains relevant in Paris
PARIS — Naomi Osaka’s 2022 French Open is over following a firstround loss. The players remaining in the tournament see and hear products of her frank discussion about anxiety and depression a year ago — from new “quiet rooms” and three on-call psychiatrists at Roland Garros to a broader sense that mental health is a far-less-taboo topic than it once was.
“I remember after I got back from France last year and having photographers follow me even at random places like the grocery store. It felt really odd and a bit overwhelming, until one day a woman came up to me and told me that by speaking up, I helped her son,” Osaka told The AP. “In that moment, it did feel all worthwhile.”
In conversations with the AP shortly before or during the French Open, which began Sunday, several professional tennis players credited Osaka with helping bring the subject out of the shadows for their sport and, in concert with the voices of other athletes such as Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles, helping foster more awareness and concern.
“I definitely think it’s something that is paid attention to way more than it was, at least when I was coming up as a teenager. I don’t even think I knew what it was when back then. And we’re seeing people speak out and normalize it a bit in a way where it’s OK if you’re struggling with something — it doesn’t matter if it’s on the court, off court, whatever,” said Jessica Pegula, a 28-year-old from New York who reached the French Open’s second round Tuesday.
“In tennis, the life we kind of live is not so normal. It can lead to a lot of unhealthy habits.”
Osaka wasn’t the first to broach this. But her place of prominence, as a four-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1-ranked player, and her decisions to withdraw from Roland Garros, to explain why and to take two mental health breaks last season resonated widely.
“Anytime an athlete shares their vulnerability and their authenticity, it’s going to affect other athletes in that sport. There’s a relatability,” said Becky Ahlgren Bedics, the VP of mental health and wellness for the WTA.
Before Roland Garros last year, Osaka said she didn’t intend to speak to the media. After her first-round victory, she was fined $15,000 for skipping a mandatory news conference (a requirement that hasn’t changed at the French Open or other major championships) and threatened by the four Grand Slam tournaments with further punishment if she did so again.
Instead, Osaka pulled out of the event, revealed what she had been going through for years and opted to take time away from tennis.
“I think everybody was surprised and was not ready for that,” said Kildine Chevalier, who was hired in October as the French tennis federation’s manager of player services and relations.
“It’s important now we take into consideration those problems,” said Chevalier, a former pro player who has not worked previously in the area of mental health, “not to repeat a similar situation and to prevent (it) instead of acting when it’s already here.”
According to Chevalier, new amenities for players at this French Open include an 850-square-foot room in the main stadium with 11 beds and noise-reducing headphones, a yoga room with daily workshops on meditation and breathing, a tea room, a nail salon and telephone hotlines to reach out to psychologists or psychiatrists.
That is separate from what the men’s and women’s tours offer, such as a member of the WTA mental health and wellness team who’s on-site at Roland Garros. Chevalier said that office is near hers, “So I see players coming all day long . ... She is working a lot.”
Those meetings have been available for years on the women’s tour, but Ahlgren Bedics estimated there has been a 30% increase in sessions for players over the initial months of 2022, compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Osaka, a 23-year-old who was born in Japan and now lives in the U.S., has remained a part of the conversation in a public way, whether merely by letting people know she speaks to a therapist or by becoming an investor with a role of chief community health advocate for Modern Health, which calls itself a “global workplace mental health and wellness platform.”
On Tuesday night, a day after exiting the tournament, Osaka tweeted: “These past few weeks in Europe have been a real character test but I’m glad I came . ... I’m leaving with a completely different emotion than the previous one.”