Naomi Osaka has suffered her earliest ever exit from the BNP Paribas Open after a straight sets second round loss during which she was heckled at by a member of the crowd.
The fourth-time Grand Slam champion fell 6-0 6-4 to Veronika Kudermetova in what is her third tournament since taking a break from the sport last September due to personal reasons. During the opening set, a member of the crowd shouted ‘Naomi, You Suck’ at the Japanese player. As a result of the incident the tennis star began to cry and spoke with Clare Wood, the WTA Tour supervisor, multiple times.
Following the conclusion of the match, Osaka explained that the heckling she encountered reminded her of a previous incident at Indian Wells involving the Williams sisters. In 2001 Serena Williams was subjected to boos during the final and her father said he received racial abuse. The incident occurred following unsubstantiated allegations that the Williams sisters fixed their semi-final match with Venus pulling out due to injury which gave her sister a bye. Serena boycotted the tournament until 2015 and Venus until 2016.
“I’ve been heckled before and it didn’t really bother me,” a tearful Osaka explained afterwards.
“But being heckled here. I’ve watched video of Venus and Serena get heckled here and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it. And I don’t know why, but it went into my head and got replayed a lot.”
In recent months Osaka has spoken openly about her personal battle with mental health and has previously taken time away from the sport due to those issues. It was during last year’s French Open where she revealed that she has suffered with depression and social anxiety since 2018.
Kudermetova, who is the 21st seed in Indian Wells, said she was initially unaware of what was happening during their match when Osaka began to cry and said she didn’t hear the heckling herself.
“I’m the same age as Naomi. When I played juniors, I never saw her. She’s a great player,” said Kudmertova.
“For me, it’s really important to play against players like that because when I play with these kinds of players, I can improve my game. After those matches, I have a little bit more confidence. I can step up, like, improve my game. It’s very important for me.”
It was at Indian Wells where Osaka made her first breakthrough by winning her maiden WTA title in 2018. She reached the fourth round a year later but missed the 2021 tournament.
As for Kudermetova, she will play Marie Bouzková in the third round.
