Noami Osaka reduced to tears at Indian Wells tournament following loss to Veronika Kudermetova

Getty Images
Jonathan Gorrie13 March 2022

Former world number one Naomi Osaka was reduced to tears after being heckled during her loss to Veronika Kudermetova at the BNP Paribas Masters in Indian Wells.

The Japanese player, who missed parts of the 2021 season because of mental health issues, was jeered in the early part of the match and it was undoubtedly a major factor as she lost 6-0 6-4 to the world number 24.

A spectator reportedly shouted "Naomi, you suck", with Osaka complaining to the umpire. As she went to serve in the third game of the match she was visibly crying.

Clearly affected, she lost the first set without winning a game, before putting up a better fight in the second set.

Osaka made the unconventional decision to stay on court and be interviewed after her loss where she said the incident reminded her of a video she watched of Venus and Serena Williams receiving abuse at the same venue in 2001.

The Williams sisters boycotted the event - widely regarded to be the biggest outside of the four grand slams - for 14 years after being racially abused 21 years ago.

Speaking through tears on court, Osaka said: "I just wanted to say thank you, I feel like I cry enough on camera.

"To be honest, I’ve been heckled before, it doesn’t really bother me, but being heckled here, I watched a video of Venus and Serena getting heckled here, if you’ve never watched it you should watch it and I don’t know why, but it got into my head and it got replayed a lot."

Osaka was playing her first tournament since the Australian Open in January where she lost in the third round.

The 24-year-old, who has won four grand slam titles, withdrew from the French Open and then missed Wimbledon last year after revealing she was suffering from mental health issues.

She returned for the US Open in September but said she would take another hiatus after an early loss, saying "when I win I don’t feel happy".

Russian Kudermetova, playing under a neutral banner due to her country’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, said: "Naomi was reminded of something that happened with Serena here a few years ago.

"She started to cry because it is similar to what’s happened with Serena. But it doesn’t matter. I know she’s strong, a great person. I think it will be good with her."

Additional reporting from PA

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in