Naomi Osaka: "The golden rule of tennis is to never look at Twitter or Instagram during a tournament"
According to four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, the "golden rule" for tennis players is to avoid social media during and after tournaments. This is due to the huge amounts of online abuse they are subjected to during those times.
Episode 5 of Netflix's 'Break Point' docuseries' second season, titled 'Now or Never,' follows Jessica Pegula's journey during the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. The American came into the tournament as the fourth seed, having lost her five previous Grand Slam quarterfinals on the trot.
As the American No. 1 at the time, expectations were rising for Pegula to make her maiden Slam semifinal soon. SW19 presented a great opportunity, with the 29-year-old taking on the unseeded Marketa Vondrousova in the last eight-fixture.
Unfortunately, Jessica Pegula ended up losing in three sets to the eventual champion, her sixth straight quarterfinal loss at a Major. Speaking in the episode, Pegula's coach David Witt shared how "devastating" it was to see his ward fail and how much it hurt to see her taking the loss to heart.
"When you see her lose or fail, it's just devastating," Witt said. "I've probably only seen Jessica cry twice. It hurts to see her like that."
The episode then cut to Pegula checking her phone afterwards, where fans were made aware of the sort of critical remarks that were directed at her.
"Poor little rich Jessica Pegula. Goes to show money can't buy titles," one fan tweeted.
"Worst No. 3 in history. More like No. 300," another fan said.
This is where Naomi Osaka popped in to add her comments, hinting that Pegula should have avoided going on X or Instagram after the loss, perhaps even have muted certain offensive words beforehand.
"The golden rule of tennis is to never look at Twitter or Instagram during a tournament and don't look at it after a tournament either. And you should definitely mute certain words and stuff like that," Naomi Osaka said.
"There was just a point where I thought to myself like 'Why?'" - Naomi Osaka on her mental health journey and learning how to confront setbacks
Naomi Osaka has been a massive supporter of athletes talking openly about their mental health journeys, having dealt with depression and anxiety throughout her life. The Japanese, most famously, skipped press conferences at the French Open in 2020 citing her mental health, which led to a pushback from the tournament.
Osaka's fellow athletes, however, rallied to her support, thereby bringing light to an important issue that had been considered taboo for a long time in mainstream media.
Speaking about her battle with mental health issues later on, Osaka admitted that she had been taught to just "stick it out" when it came to such matters, a lesson that had been very valuable for her.
At the same time, there came a point in her life where she simply questioned why she had to do so, prompting her to adopt different approaches and try better solutions going forward.
"I think for me, I've just always been taught to kind of like stick it out or like work through it and I think that's a very valuable lesson because it has gotten me through a lot of things in life. But there was just a point where I thought to myself like 'Why?', you know!"
"And not in a negative way. If I am feeling this way, why would I keep pushing through it, when I can kind of confront it and fix it and then continue on my journey," Osaka said.