Naomi Osaka held her first press conference since May on Monday. All went well until Cincinnati Enquirer Paul Daugherty asked a question.
While the exact wording is unknown, New York Times tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg characterized it as “a fairly aggressively toned question about how (Osaka) benefits from a high-media profile but doesn’t like talking to media.”
In May, Naomi Osaka chose to bow out of the French Open over mental health issues she said were related to answering questions in press conferences after matches. It caused a stir in the sports media, with writers and broadcasters taking hardline stances on one side or the other. Even here at Barrett Sports Media, our writers Jay Mariotti and Demetri Ravanos saw things very differently.
Clearly Osaka’s decision was something that Paul Daugherty thought she needed to answer for. Rothenberg says that what made it frustrating for those that were part of the press conference was that the question itself was not a bad one. The problem stemmed from Dougherty, a reporter that doesn’t cover tennis, looking for a confrontation.
Osaka’s agent Stuart Duguid told Rothenberg “The bully at the Cincinnati Enquirer is the epitome of why player / media relations are so fraught right now. Everyone on that Zoom will agree that his tone was all wrong and his sole purpose was to intimidate. Really appalling behavior. And this insinuation that Naomi owes her off court success to the media is a myth – don’t be so self-indulgent.”
