Rafael Nadal said he feels ‘terrible’ about what happened to Naomi Osaka at the BNP Paribas Open last week but warned that players should be prepared for such situations.
Osaka bowed out in the second round to Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets. During the match a member of the crowd heckled the Japanese star and was heard shouting ‘Naomi, you suck.’ Following the incident the former world No.1 was seen crying during the match and spoke with the tournament supervisor multiple times.
Osaka explained after the match that the heckling reminded her of a previous incident at Indian Wells involving the Williams sisters. In 2001 Serena Williams was subjected to boos during the final and her father said he received racial abuse. The incident occurred following unsubstantiated allegations that the Williams sisters fixed their semi-final match with Venus pulling out due to injury which gave her sister a bye. Serena boycotted the tournament until 2015 and Venus until 2016 as a result of what happened.
“I’ve been heckled before and it didn’t really bother me,” a tearful Osaka explained afterwards.
“But being heckled here. I’ve watched video of Venus and Serena get heckled here and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it. And I don’t know why, but it went into my head and got replayed a lot.”
Questioned about Osaka following his win over Dan Evans on Monday, 21-time Grand Slam champion Nadal sympathized with his fellow tennis player. Although he admits that players need to accept that heckling occurs and they should be ready for it. However, the issue isn’t as prevalent as it is in other sports such as football.
“The easy answer for me is I feel terrible about what happened, that never should happen,” Nadal told reporters.
“Even if it is terrible to hear that, we need to be prepared for that, no?
“At the same time, as we like a lot when the people are supporting us, when something like this happens, we need to accept and move forward.
“We need to resist these kinds of issues that can happen when you are exposed to the people.”
In recent months 24-year-old Osaka has taken time away from the sport due to personal reasons surrounding her mental health. Last year during the French Open she revealed that she has been suffering from social anxiety and depression since 2018. The year she won her maiden WTA title at Indian Wells as well as her first US Open trophy.
“I understand that probably Naomi suffered a lot with these, kind of issues that she has, mental (health) issues. The only thing that I wish her is to recover well from that and wish her all the very best,” said Nadal.
“But life, nothing is perfect in this life, no? We need to be ready for adversities.”
Osaka is set to return to action later this month at the Miami Open.
