Tennis Thread

[KS55]

The minute she said she didn’t want to do it, it should have been enough. The PR machine only had to kick into overdrive because the collective tennis world (US Open!) lost its shit at someone daring to say she couldn’t handle to press very well.

Only after much reconsideration was their much genuflecting, in both directions, as postpone realized that not only is it ridiculously prevalent in sports, but that the media has a role to play, just not the role it does play so often.

We live in an instant tabloid, social media culture, and almost require athletes and celebrities in any walk of life embrace it. To not want to do so should be acceptable, and the, her PR people were in the business of creating buzz she had already created and seemed ill-equipped to simply speak her truth to power/promotion of the event.

I apologize if I overstated my initial disdain.

Compare Ben Stokes:
"I need a complete break from cricket for the sake of my mental health"
End of.
No crit from the press.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Quoting Pep…!

Merely to highlight that all sports people do it!

Press conferences every other day is overkill. No one enjoys doing them. I can see why people get tired of doing them.

 

[domalino]

I often wonder about talented sports men and women in 'elite' sport whether or not they would be there if it weren't for their privileged background.

Certainly not your average kid from a council estate if you go by a recent Press Association article...

'Raducanu began playing tennis at the age of five at Bromley Tennis Academy. It was perhaps inevitable she would have a sporting life, given the way her father encouraged her as a youngster. After initially attending ballet classes, Raducanu tried horse riding, swimming, tap dancing, basketball, skiing, golf, go-karting and motocross, all alongside tennis, which it soon became apparent was her strength'.

Nothing privileged about Andy Murray's background as far as I'm aware? Just the son of a local tennis coach.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Compare Ben Stokes:
"I need a complete break from cricket for the sake of my mental health"
End of.
No crit from the press.

Perhaps Osaka didn’t need a complete break from tennis for the sake of her mental health? Maybe she needed a break from doing press conferences, like she said.

 

[domalino]

Compare Ben Stokes:
"I need a complete break from cricket for the sake of my mental health"
End of.
No crit from the press.

Yes, I wonder what it could possibly be that means Ben Stokes and Naomi Osaka get treated differently by the media?

I know I've seen something similar before, like with Phil Foden and Tosin Adarabioyo, but I just can't quite put my finger on it...

 

[KS55]

Perhaps Osaka didn’t need a complete break from tennis for the sake of her mental health? Maybe she needed a break from doing press conferences, like she said.

Well then, a simple statement would have sufficed. The complication, of course, is that the press debrief after a game is compulsory and trying to get round that was the source of the problem.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Well then, a simple statement would have sufficed. The complication, of course, is that the press debrief after a game is compulsory.

And unnecessary in 99% of cases.

 

[KS55]

And unnecessary in 99% of cases.

Not just unnecessary, but completely unenlightening.

 

[domalino]

Well then, a simple statement would have sufficed. The complication, of course, is that the press debrief after a game is compulsory and trying to get round that was the source of the problem.

And unnecessary in 99% of cases.

KS55 is of course deliberately leaving out that while the press conference is obligatory, people have skipped them in the past and there was a set punishment of a fine.

Until Osaka did it and intimated it might not be a one off. Then they summarily discarded the existing rules, the 4 majors colluded to implement a new rule banning anyone who misses them.

And at that point, she had to come forward and disclose her medical condition.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Compare Ben Stokes:
"I need a complete break from cricket for the sake of my mental health"
End of.
No crit from the press.

Compare big lad, already strong media presence, already quite famous and not a church mouse with church mouse facing intense media scrutiny in her formative years?

OK…