WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Naomi Osaka wasn’t the first professional tennis player to withdraw from a Grand Slam tournament due to mental health issues — and she likely won’t be the last. Others may not always be as direct as Osaka.
“I’m sure a number of people are struggling. More than we know,” said US Davis Cup captain Mardy Fish, who withdrew from the 2012 US Open after having a panic attack before facing Roger Federer. “Many players have had mental health issues, whether you know it or not. I’ve talked to a lot of players over the last eight or nine years that you’ve heard of: some up-and-coming players; some college players; men and women – who have struggled with this stuff. It’s prevalent in sport and certainly prevalent in such an individual sport.
In video or telephone interviews during Wimbledon, which ends Sunday, and the French Open, which ended in June, current and former players said they believed their sport could be particularly prone to problems such as stress, anxiety and depression.
After all, it’s primarily a solo sport with a traveling lifestyle, no guaranteed paycheck, and constant thumbs-up or thumbs-down (usually the latter for most players)-based judgments. on results and rankings.
There are no teammates to rely on. There are no days off for “load management.” Players can’t even benefit from in-match coaching in most tournaments.
“If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, if you don’t feel good, you’re not going to be able to say, ‘Hey, I’m not going to play this game today,'” said Fish, who reached the 7th place in the ranking. rankings, appeared in three Grand Slam quarterfinals and won an Olympic silver medal. “And you have to go through everything on your own.”
This has been amplified recently due to the pandemic.
“Sometimes it’s not a priority. Sometimes it’s the last thing on our minds. But especially in tennis, the mind is very important. … We travel a lot and we’re alone, so it can really tax you mentally,” said Jennifer Brady, a 26-year-old from Pennsylvania who was runner-up to Osaka at the 2017 Australian Open. . February and is part of the American team for the Tokyo Games.
“I keep a lot of things to myself, and over time it can snowball into a big problem. And then, at some point, you kind of explode and you’re like, “Whoa. Where does this come from?’ But really, it’s just an accumulation of everything,” said Brady, who is seeking help from a sports psychologist. “And there’s always a breaking point for everyone.”
Osaka drew attention to the issue in late May, when she withdrew from the French Open before the second round, saying she was experiencing “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and that she had “suffered from long periods of depression.” She took a mental health break and sat out of Wimbledon; his return is planned for the Olympics, which are expected to begin in two weeks without any fans, amid a state of emergency in Japan.
Osaka, 23, has won four Grand Slam titles, been ranked No. 1 and is the highest-paid female athlete in the world.
In an essay for Time magazine, she wrote that she hoped “we can adopt measures to protect athletes, especially the most fragile,” and said: “Each of us, as humans, go through something on a certain level. »
His example is not isolated, and this kind of thing is of course not limited to tennis. Athletes from various sports discussed their own experiences, including Olympians Michael Phelps and Gracie Gold, the NFL’s Dak Prescott, the NBA’s Kevin Love and NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace.
“We’ve been talking about it forever,” said Becky Ahlgren Bedics, vice president of mental health and well-being for the WTA, the women’s tennis circuit. “Every time an athlete shares with us, or shares with the world, their experience, we can learn from it, especially if we listen. And we certainly listen.
At Wimbledon, and at most tournaments, the WTA provides a clinician on site so that players can request 30 or 60 minute sessions. Also offered every day and at any time: video or telephone conversations.
The WTA’s comprehensive wellness program began in the 1990s and focused on prevention, education and awareness of services.
“They are used a lot by our athletes, even in the rankings,” Ahlgren Bedics said. “Who is most likely to use it?” We have athletes who have just started on the circuit as well as others who are here and who are more of our veterans.
(Last year, the ATP men’s tour announced a partnership with a company offering access to therapists. Fish’s response when asked if the ATP had such support systems when it played: “No.
Some players travel with their own mental coach. Others speak regularly or occasionally with one.
Still others say they’re looking for a conversation with someone they know well, like a coach or personal trainer.
“I am someone who has suffered from anxiety since my father passed away, to the point where I couldn’t leave the house. I was playing matches and everything was getting out of control. … My mother and the people around me begged me to get help. But I was the guy who was like, ‘Hey, whatever.’ It is very good. Yada yada yada.’ But I got help,” said Steve Johnson, a 31-year-old from California who was the 2011-12 NCAA singles champion for USC and was ranked 21st. “I speak to a therapist quite frequently. It’s not a weakness. You have no idea what someone is going through unless you ask them.
Whether the concerns are personal or professional, they exist, as in any area of life.
That’s why last year’s French Open champion Iga Swiatek is traveling with a sports psychologist. That’s why this year’s French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova needed her psychologist to talk her out of a panic attack that left her afraid to leave the locker room.
“There is a lot of pressure. I felt it when I was world No. 20. I felt it when I broke my ankle and I came back and I had (ranking) points to defend and people expected me to get the same results as before and that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t the case,” said Mihaela Buzarnescu, a 33-year-old player from Romania who has a doctorate. “I was depressed. When… my ranking went from 55 to 135 in one week, I couldn’t leave my hotel room for a few days.”
Buzarnescu said the pandemic has been particularly hard because of the lack of fans – they were banned from last year’s US Open; Wimbledon only allowed full capacity on some courts in Week 2 – along with restrictions on player movements.
Jamie Murray, a 35-year-old Scot with five Grand Slam titles in men’s or mixed doubles and older brother of three-time major champion Andy, says it wears on him.
“We went from bubble to bubble to bubble, all over the world. And there’s no escaping tennis. You play a match, let’s say you lose — it’s even harder when you lose — you go back to the hotel. Small hotel room, four walls. Sometimes you don’t have fresh air because you can’t open your windows. And you’re just sitting there. And the match is just there, like that,” Murray said, hand in front of his face. “And it plays over and over in your mind. And you can’t escape it. There is no escape. You can’t go out to dinner with your friends.
During Wimbledon, all players stayed in one hotel, instead of being able to rent private homes to stay with family or friends. British players could not stay at home. No one can leave the hotel except to go to the tournament site.
“It was difficult for them last year to operate in these environments,” admitted All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton.
In Paris, players were allowed one hour of free time per day. During the Australian Open in February, players couldn’t leave their hotel rooms at all for two weeks if someone on their flight tested positive for COVID-19.
“This is a fragile time in everyone’s life. This bubble thing, you can’t take into account the weight that it takes on each person,” said Reilly Opelka, 23, the highest-ranked man in the United States. “When you’re in a bad state of mind, it can get dark and it’s scary. It really is. It’s frightening.”
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