Two years after Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open after being fined, then threatened with disqualification, for skipping press conferences, another top tennis player – the No. 2 seed Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka – was allowed to skip the traditional post-match session. open to all accredited journalists and instead speak on Friday with what was described as a “pool” of selected questioners.
Sabalenka, a native of Belarus, did not appear at a news conference Friday after reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kamilla Rakhimova. After each of her two previous victories this week, Sabalenka was asked about her position on the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, when Russia invaded that country with the help of Belarus.
Sabalenka said she “didn’t feel safe” during her news conference Wednesday and wanted to protect her “mental health and well-being.” Sabalenka’s desire to bypass the standard Q&A was supported by the tournament and the WTA. She will not be fined.
The topic of war was raised at the previous two news conferences by Daria Meshcheriakova, a part-time Ukrainian journalist for a sports media outlet that she says is viewed 7 million times a month. Meshcheriakova, who said she had been an employee of the German embassy in kyiv, left Ukraine ten days after the start of the war and settled in the Netherlands.
Sabalenka’s first match at Roland Garros was against a Ukrainian player, Marta Kostyuk, who then refused to shake hands at the net – as she has done against every Russian or Belarusian opponent since the attacks began. Kostyuk was booed by fans who apparently didn’t know why she refused the usual gesture.
Two spokesmen for the French Tennis Federation would not say who was authorized to speak with Sabalenka on Friday, but a transcript was distributed to media. The first “question” was: “Before we begin, I know there was a tense situation at your runoff press conference, and if you wanted to address it. »
The response, according to the transcript: “After my match, I spoke with the media as I usually do. I know they are still waiting for questions that are more about politics than my tennis. For many months I have answered these questions at tournaments and have been very clear in my feelings and thoughts. These questions don’t bother me after my matches. I know I have to provide answers to the media about things that don’t concern my tennis or my matches, but on Wednesday I didn’t feel safe in (the) press conference. I should be able to feel safe doing interviews with journalists after my matches. For my mental health and well-being, I decided to get out of this situation today, and the tournament supported me in this decision. The last few days have not been easy, and now my goal is to continue playing well here in Paris.
What followed were topics such as how Sabalenka played on Friday, her previous record at Roland Garros, her physical training and the types of films she watched.
At the 2021 French Open, Osaka – a four-time major champion and former No. 1 – highlighted the issue of athletes’ mental health by saying she did not want to speak to the media during the tournament. She was docked $15,000 for missing the press conference after her first-round victory in Paris, then threatened by all four Grand Slams with possible additional punishment, including disqualification or suspension , if she continued not to participate in these availabilities.
Osaka later withdrew from the competition, saying she felt “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealed she had “suffered long periods of depression”.
