4-times main champion and former world primary Naomi Osaka broke down in tears throughout her second-round loss to Veronika Kudermetova on the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday after a fan knocked her out of the stands within the first set.
After the match, Osaka requested to handle the group, one thing {that a} dropping participant hardly ever does. She wished to clarify precisely why she was so upset about what had occurred.
“To be trustworthy, I have been harassed earlier than, it did not actually trouble me,” Osaka mentioned as her voice cracked. “However [being] I retreated right here, and watched a video of Venus and Serena [Williams] You get teased right here, and in case you’ve by no means seen it, it’s best to watch it. I do not know why it got here into my thoughts, and it was introduced again so usually.”
Throughout the 2001 match in Indian Wells, Venus Williams and her father Richard have been booed loudly as they sat down to look at Serena play within the remaining. Some imagine Richard manipulated matches between his daughters after Venus withdrew attributable to an damage previous to the occasion’s semi-final match. Followers then directed their anger at Serena all through her match, and the taunts continued even after Serena defeated Kim Clijsters for the title.
The 2 sisters then boycotted the match till 2016.
In an interview in November, Serena revealed that the episode was nonetheless haunting her.
“Even after I went again 14 years later, it was very painful,” Serena mentioned in an interview with actor Will Smith in November. “Discuss PTSD and psychological anxiousness. I bear in mind sitting within the toilet pondering, ‘Wait, I am not going again.'” I do not suppose I ought to do that. What if they begin booing once more? “It was actually tough for me.”
Richard Williams later mentioned the incident was racially motivated and that the household had been the goal of a number of insults all through the match. Osaka is a bi-racial participant of black and Japanese descent.
Osaka has struggled since successful her final main title on the Australian Open in 2023, withdrawing from the French Open earlier than her second-round match, opting out of Wimbledon, after which saying that she can be taking the game indefinitely after a 3rd run. The exit spherical of the US Open is in September. She returned to competitors early within the season, however misplaced within the third spherical of the Australian Open to Amanda Anisimova. Its rating dropped to quantity 85.
The BNP Paribas Open was her first since Melbourne, and she or he initially wanted a wild card to enter earlier than transferring on to the primary draw. She is then scheduled to play on the Miami Open later this month as a wild card.
Kudermetova, seeded 21, will play Marie Bozkova within the third spherical at Indian Wells.
