{"id":83444,"date":"2021-06-11T00:36:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T00:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=83444"},"modified":"2021-06-11T02:23:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T02:23:16","slug":"tennis-boss-claims-osaka-saga-handled-very-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=83444","title":{"rendered":"Tennis boss claims Osaka saga handled 'very well'"},"content":{"rendered":"

The president of the French Tennis Federation has defended the handling of Naomi Osaka's media boycott<\/a> and said making press conferences optional could pose a "serious problem" for world tennis.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the New York Times, Gilles Moretton declared officials handled Osaka's threat to miss press conferences<\/a> efficiently, while denying there were ever serious considerations about expelling her from Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

The only place tennis fans can watch every Roland Garros match is on Stan Sport.<\/em><\/strong> Start a seven-day free trial of the Stan Sport add-on now!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"I think we did very, very well," Moretton said when asked to assess the Osaka situation<\/a>. The French tennis boss said he understood the stresses highlighted by the world No.2 but upheld the stance to issue fines. Osaka's decision to opt out of mandatory media duties would have cost her $19,000 per round.<\/p>\n

\"Naomi<\/p>\n

"The goal was not to penalise her. It was to say clearly: Here's the rule," Moretton said.<\/p>\n

"I think we would have kept giving her fines.<\/p>\n

"I don't think we would have gone to a tougher sanction, because we understood the situation. But it's the rule. The rule is there to be fair to all the players."<\/p>\n

Even though Moretton said he was open to change the policy at the French Open in the future, he warned that making interactions with the press optional will sell fans short.<\/p>\n

"The problem she raised is a real problem, a real topic for discussion," he said.<\/p>\n

"Perhaps we will change the rules, and then everyone only comes to press if they want to.<\/p>\n

"You will see that there are not many who will come.<\/p>\n

"Everyone will be their own journalist. (Players will) speak when they want to speak, say what they want to say, respond only to questions they want to answer. And I think it's a serious problem."<\/p>\n

\"Osaka<\/p>\n

Moretton agreed players may need additional support but cutting out the media completely would be detrimental to several stakeholders – most importantly, supporters of the sport.<\/p>\n

"So yes of course to measures that will provide help and support to players, but let's keep the freedom of the press to ask a question that might be uncomfortable and that interests the public, who are the ones who provide a living for the athletes and the personalities."<\/p>\n

Osaka is in serious doubt to play at Wimbledon in a few weeks<\/a> and withdrew from a grass court tournament in Germany ahead of the third Grand Slam of the year.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old thanked supporters on the weekend, in what were her first comments since her shock exit from Roland-Garros.<\/p>\n

"Just want to say thank you for all the love. Haven't been on my phone much but I wanted to hop on here and tell you all that I really appreciate it," Osaka wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president of the French Tennis Federation has defended the handling of Naomi Osaka's media boycott and said making press conferences optional could pose a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83446,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83444\/revisions\/83446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}