French Open 2021

[Pigeon_Killer]

The French Open started yesterday and we've already seen a couple of seeds, including Thiem (4) and Dan Evans (25), eliminated.

This year, Djokovic (1), Nadal (3) and Federer (8) are all in the top half of the draw so Djokovic could meet Federer in the quarter finals and Nadal in the semis if they all make it that far. No Murray this year, he's saving himself for the grass season although a poor showing at Wimbledon could see him retire this year imo.

On the women's side, Osaka has dominated proceedings so far having refused to speak to the media. She's not great on clay and appears to dislike the fact the media always ask difficult questions when she loses. She was fined $15,000 after her first round win yesterday and has now been threatened with expulsion from the event, as well as Wimbledon and the US, if she continues to shun the media which she's contractually obliged to do.

 

[SpeedFreak]

Well that is stupid. Frankly it is part and parcel of the job to talk to the media and helps drive the fan and sponsor interest. This ultimately contributes towards the huge prizes and endorsement deals.

 

[McGraw]

Well that is stupid. Frankly it is part and parcel of the job to talk to the media and helps drive the fan and sponsor interest. This ultimately contributes towards the huge prizes and endorsement deals.

She’s quit the tournament. Do you understand why she did?

 

[SpeedFreak]

I completely understand, but again, I reiterate, it is part of the job. She's free to play demonstration matches under her own terms, but if you show up willing to take the prize money then there are conditions. If she is having mental health issues then withdrawing is the right course of action for her.

 

[Slam62]

I completely understand, but again, I reiterate, it is part of the job. She's free to play demonstration matches under her own terms, but if you show up willing to take the prize money then there are conditions. If she is having mental health issues then withdrawing is the right course of action for her.

Sorry, I don't agree, we need an analogy that people can understand,
If she had a physical medical reason for not going would that be ok?

The poor girl has been prevented from earning a living for a frankly pathetic reason, they should have made adjustments for her such as written questions, something she would have been OK with.

It is such a shame that the professional tennis world seems to collectively not remotely understand mental health.

 

[Moothead2]

Always funny that people hate the media until someone does something about it and it turns into "the poor old media pay your wages you ungrateful swine!".

 

[SpeedFreak]

Poor girl prevented from earning a living? She made $50m last year, the majority of which was from endorsements. Professional sport has obligations not purely related to the on field performance. She is happy to take sponsorship money but then not engage with broadcasters which in turn helps promote their brands, part of the reason why she gets paid by them. Again, I am not dismissing her mental health issues, if she can't fulfill all of her duties then she shouldn't be there for her own good. I'm glad she has made that call.

 

[Slam62]

Poor girl prevented from earning a living? She made $50m last year, the majority of which was from endorsements. Professional sport has obligations not purely related to the on field performance. She is happy to take sponsorship money but then not engage with broadcasters which in turn helps promote their brands, part of the reason why she gets paid by them. Again, I am not dismissing her mental health issues, if she can't fulfill all of her duties then she shouldn't be there for her own good. I'm glad she has made that call.

Her job is to play tennis, the endorsement contracts are her own business, she has no duties, at all. They don't have to sponsor her or they can rip up the contracts. She's not happy obviously, she is good at tennis and also obviously good publicity, probably even better publicity if the recognised her condition and did something to help. You can't just dismiss mental health issues society needs to include everyone. Tennis is no different.

 

[SpeedFreak]

Her chosen career is to compete in tennis tournaments and there are media duties that come with that. I dare say her issues are more with social media than the court side press, who frankly have been nothing more than complimentary about her game and approach to tennis.

 

[One More Solo]

Sport is littered with talented people who are totally unsuited to all the guff that comes with it. Good on her for taking a stand.

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

Withdrawing is the correct decision for her health but she's not done herself any favours with the way she's handled things this week. She's always been very open about her battles with depression, since her US Open win in 2018, yet had continued to play and honour her contractual obligations with the media until last week so other than trying to give herself a mental advantage over her competitors on her weakest surface, I'm not sure what she was trying to achieve this week.

As it is, she's received little to no support from the other players, who all know dealing with difficult questions before and after matches is part and parcel of tennis, and backed the tennis authorities in to a corner. The sensible thing to have done would've been to drop out of the tournament before it started and taken an extended break but her actions have so far done nothing more than rile up social media. Ultimately, without the media there are no sponsors, there is no money and there are no tournaments or tennis stars so if she's hoping to avoid the media in future, tennis isn't the sport for her.

https://sports.ndtv.com/tennis/with...e-rafael-nadal-on-naomi-osaka-boycott-2451428

In other news, Konta lost in straight sets and Federer won in straight sets. Djokovic and Nadal both play tomorrow.

 

[cu3ed]

Lmao, signs contracts that will be mostly littered with agreements about TV time, media shoot, press releases, wearing sponsored brands at certain events, lots of sponsor campaign media events etc. Cries she has to give a 15 minutes interview after match with the biggest softball questions they will ever have to answer. Get lost. Her contract would at the top what minimum about of slams she is required to play at, and ones she Has to play at.
If she was bad, she wouldn't be able to travel. If she wanted change she would have started discussions with other players feds and Slam organisers about what can be done.

 

[omnomnom]

Lmao, signs contracts that will be mostly littered with agreements about TV time, media shoot, press releases, wearing sponsored brands at certain events, lots of sponsor campaign media events etc. Cries she has to give a 15 minutes interview after match with the biggest softball questions they will ever have to answer. Get lost. Her contract would at the top what minimum about of slams she is required to play at, and ones she Has to play at.
If she was bad, she wouldn't be able to travel. If she wanted change she would have started discussions with other players feds and Slam organisers about what can be done.

Ever suffered from depression before?

 

[cu3ed]

Ever suffered from depression before?

Yes, and acute anxiety, lucky sought professional help and have moved passed it now.

 

[fez]

Its part of her job and if she cannot do that then she should step away until she feels like she can.

I understand temporary time away from a job if you have personal issues that need dealing with but if you are fundamentally ill suited to the demands of a job you shouldn't be doing it.

Everyone has plenty of parts of their job that they hate doing but we get on with it.

She gets paid millions as a result of the industry that has built up around tennis and its stars and that is reliant on media attention and sponsorship duties. She has been happy to take the frankly obscene paycheques that are dependent on those duties so I don't see why its an issue if she has to step back and miss a tournament to deal with her mental health. You can't always have your cake and eat it too. I haven't heard any sports person say they like interviews or media commitments.

I would have far more sympathy if this was a struggling young player just coming into the game who was reliant on that prize money.

Just feels like a bit of a non-story to me. Player doesn't want to/can't do her job and takes time away from her job.

 

[omnomnom]

Yes, and acute anxiety, lucky sought professional help and have moved passed it now.

Then I dont quite understand :

Lmao, signs contracts that will be mostly littered with agreements about TV time, media shoot, press releases, wearing sponsored brands at certain events, lots of sponsor campaign media events etc. Cries she has to give a 15 minutes interview after match with the biggest softball questions they will ever have to answer. Get lost. Her contract would at the top what minimum about of slams she is required to play at, and ones she Has to play at.
If she was bad, she wouldn't be able to travel. If she wanted change she would have started discussions with other players feds and Slam organisers about what can be done.

If you have suffered yourself from depression and especially anxiety then you should understand where she is coming from yet you are absolutely slamming her?

 

[cu3ed]

Then I dont quite understand :



If you have suffered yourself from depression and especially anxiety then you should understand where she is coming from yet you are absolutely slamming her?

Because she says these things but her actions are not of that with someone that suffers from these. Especially from a person that has bank, ( not that jsut from having money solves the issue, in anyway, but bloody hell does it give you options), only thing that makes most get up suffering with Depression or GAD is, well, bills to pay, which of course the thought of that makes the whole thing much more worse. If you suffer from acute anxiety etc, their is no way to describe every part of your being will make you not want to be at a certain place for a certain reason. Every element of who you are wants to stay away from that particular thing or situation. The idea of signing anything the would be mostly plastered with events that she says she doesnt like, would have you run a mile, she didnt wake up to this one day. In all sports you work your way through the ranks, drip by drip more attention comes on to you, unless its an under dog tale, she signed on more and more sponsors, leaving smaller ones for bigger ones, she knows, in every detail before hand, what was expected of her.

In a lot of my time learning about it, and mostly realising what was going on, I spoke to my bosses over a particular time/ job things weren't so great, every time I have I was met with empathy and understanding to it. In that case, I accept could very much be in the minority here, and that was 10 years ago. To not have meaningful engagements with any organiser to see if anything could be done just sounds more like a person had a " Nah I dont like that" and throwing their toys out of the pram.

 

[One More Solo]

Lmao, signs contracts that will be mostly littered with agreements about TV time, media shoot, press releases, wearing sponsored brands at certain events, lots of sponsor campaign media events etc. Cries she has to give a 15 minutes interview after match with the biggest softball questions they will ever have to answer. Get lost. Her contract would at the top what minimum about of slams she is required to play at, and ones she Has to play at.
If she was bad, she wouldn't be able to travel. If she wanted change she would have started discussions with other players feds and Slam organisers about what can be done.

Meanwhile, the sponsor backlash begins:

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sport...tennis-star-withdraws-french-open/5288752001/

Oh, wait.

This is a good opportunity to consider the value/necessity of press conferences. Do fans particularly care about them? They’re an easy way to fill column inches but for the most part are dull, stage managed affairs that yield little of interest. From the athlete’s perspective, making them dull and stage managed requires a huge amount of mental effort. You’ve just stepped off the court/field and are still full of adrenaline and emotion, and now you have to moderate what you say to avoid upsetting anyone or giving the press an attack angle. This is even more true for women where behaviour seen as confident/maverick in men is characterised as emotional or unstable.

It’s easy to dismiss the questions as softball but the journalists in attendance could ask you literally anything, and there may be topics you are not prepared to talk about but either have to skirt around or meet head on. Likewise, it’s easy to ask a soft question that is laden with subtext and the journalist and sportsperson both know it and have to smile through it.

The timing might be seen as convenient but depression is an unpredictable illness.

 

[cu3ed]

Meanwhile, the sponsor backlash begins:

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sport...tennis-star-withdraws-french-open/5288752001/

Oh, wait.

This is a good opportunity to consider the value/necessity of press conferences. Do fans particularly care about them? They’re an easy way to fill column inches but for the most part are dull, stage managed affairs that yield little of interest. From the athlete’s perspective, making them dull and stage managed requires a huge amount of mental effort. You’ve just stepped off the court/field and are still full of adrenaline and emotion, and now you have to moderate what you say to avoid upsetting anyone or giving the press an attack angle. This is even more true for women where behaviour seen as confident/maverick in men is characterised as emotional or unstable.

It’s easy to dismiss the questions as softball but the journalists in attendance could ask you literally anything, and there may be topics you are not prepared to talk about but either have to skirt around or meet head on. Likewise, it’s easy to ask a soft question that is laden with subtext and the journalist and sportsperson both know it and have to smile through it.

The timing might be seen as convenient but depression is an unpredictable illness.

I didnt say her Sponsor's wouldnt play it differently or hold a gun to her after doing what she did. I said about what contracts she signs up to for years knowing exactly what will be asked of them.
Im sure Nike and their well known adjusted moral compass didnt have any kind or PR meetings about which way to play this and weigh up short term Vs long-term gain. I'm sure they didnt wonder what to do when Serna made her first big win the most terrible time for her live on court and have people boo her because William's couldn't get her self together. Its funny when all these poeple spin their heels once they weigh up public reception.
Press conferences are what are constantly used and played for sports news segments all over the world.

 

[fez]

Come now, when companies are issuing grovelling apologies for the disgusting use of such hateful phrases as "good morning ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls" do you honestly think that any sponsor or company would come out and say "we don't agree with Osaka".

If all players stopped doing media appearances the prize money and sponsorship would just slowly decrease. Then you would have all these tennis stars earning millions from their image and quite happy to do the media they want to do for the most financial benefit but not doing the stuff they don't want to do.

I agree that mental health is very important but I think that we are raising generations of people to have the square root of FA mental resilience. If you have a fragile constitution then you need to find a career that can cater to that. Personally I would hate to be a public speaker or up in front of large crowds so I have gone into a job that doesn't require that. Other people are uber social and would hate doing what I do for a job. Lots of jobs require a certain personality or have certain things that you are required to do. If you cannot do them then you need to find another career. I know this is an oversimplification but in tennis people spend a lot of money to watch you play and that means you get paid well but you have obligations. If you flip burgers the chances are good that you will have to do other things too. You are not a burger flipper. Professional athletes are not just sportspeople, they are celebrities.