Tennis: Japanese star Naomi Osaka will not participate in Wimbledon

Japanese star Naomi Osaka, who had recently withdrawn from Roland Garros saying she suffered from depression and anxiety, gives up participating in the Wimbledon tournament, the 3rd Grand Slam round of the tennis season which begins in eleven days, announced his agent Thursday.

“Naomi won't play at Wimbledon this year.

She takes time with her friends and family.

She will be ready for the Olympics and is eager to perform in front of her home crowd, ”the statement said.

The world number two, four-time Grand Slam winner (US Open 2018 and 2020, Australian Open 2019 and 2021), 23, had warned that she would take a step back from the competition, due to problems of depression and anxiety.

The day before, the organizers of the 3rd round of the Grand Slam of the tennis season (June 28-July 11) who hoped for his presence, had contacted his team, without having been able to "speak to Naomi herself" and had added not have "received confirmation" of non-participation.

So here it is formalized.

A second blow for Wimbledon in the space of a few hours, since earlier Thursday, the world N.3, Rafael Nadal, had also announced his package in order to "let his body recover".

The Spaniard, 13 times crowned on Parisian clay, was stripped of his throne at Roland Garros last Friday, beaten in the semifinals by Novak Djokovic after an epic fight, in which he appeared physically marked.

Words on a pro sport blind spot

The player had recently been talked about after refusing to submit to the traditional question-and-answer exercise in front of journalists.

Naomi Osaka said she wanted to boycott the press conference to "preserve her sanity", thus drawing the wrath of the organizers.

They deplored the attitude of the Japanese, and even excluded her from the tournament.

Sanctioned by a fine of 15,000 dollars (approximately 12,600 euros), the world number two preferred to slip away.

Read also "Athletes are not supermen": Osaka opens wide the debate on the mental health of athletes

By revealing to have suffered from depressive episodes for almost three years, the 23-year-old Japanese, the highest-paid sportswoman in the world and activist, put words on a blind spot of the profession of high-level athlete: mental health.

Osaka will therefore not be in London this year, a tournament from which she was eliminated in the third round in 2017 and 2018 and where she lost in the first round in 2019.