Osaka on French Open interviews: No comment

Some have people handle it for them.

 

For sure. They all claim they don't look at the media. But if there is something bad about them, they will surely know about it.

 

They definitely see what’s said about them on social media.

 

Time isn't covering her on a daily basis. In fact, she'll actually be more valuable to outlets for self-authored content if she doesn't do media. It's simple supply and demand that will further help her self-narrative, which she is obviously concerned with.

But for her and all athletes, the real benefit of doing media is talking after losses. Either she explains why she lost or the media fills it with conjecture or the hard, honest truth.

 

I thought it noteworthy how relatively little attention her Time story got. It's kind of like-- we hashed this out HARD a month ago. The bulk of the focus now seems to be on what's going on with the actual sport. Wimbledon and a dude going for the calendar Slam. On the women's side, an interesting world #1 winning major #2. From a PR perspective, for her to release that during Wimbledon seems like a head-scratcher.

 

What happened after the French Open led to a discussion about the mental health of athletes. This seems different. Not so much a jump off to a discussion but a launching an attack, if you will, in which she dictates that everything always be on her own terms and only ever on her terms. In fact, I suspect she has successfully built a scenario in which she never again speaks after losing. And yes, it certainly seems disrespectful doing in during Wimbledon, except of course, tennis is only headlines during the grand slam. And she knows that.

 

Agreed. Which, again, she's in theory just as entitled to as Steve Carlton was once entitled to the same. The difference is, with Osaka, there's almost an imperative that it's appropriate to not only give her the freedom to do as she pleases, but agree that she's right about it, and, what's more, moral in the process. It went from Osaka basically saying "fine me, and give the money to charity" to "I'm an advocate saving the mental health of others." It's not unlike when, person X has a grievance - legitimate or not - and doesn't get what they want, and then pivots to putting the system on trial for the benefit of everyone else who didn't have the grievance and didn't ask for the salvation.

 

Or she just wants the attention of declaring she doesn't want the attention.

 

A super way to prove you are naturally introverted and not courting the spotlight is to pose for the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

 

Wonder how many interviews she'll do to promote it?

 

Of course, one could say that appearing on the cover of the SI swimsuit issue is actually a GOOD way to stay anonymous these days.

 

I'm over her.