Naomi Osaka may have pulled out of Cincinnati, but her unceremonious reaction after the Canadian Open final has frustratingly remained relevant.
After all, she has been under fire ever since her match with Victoria Mboko concluded, not just for the way in which she collapsed, but for the speech she gave after.
She looked emotional as she stepped up to the microphone, in front of a crowd that had rallied against her all night, and as such, wanted it over and done with as quickly as possible.
However, in her haste, she forgot to congratulate the new title-holder, and people have been quick to lambast this move.
One pundit has now gone as far as to brand her ‘rude and entitled’, even if she does sympathise with her.
Naomi Osaka slammed for her Canadian Open runners-up speech again
Speaking at length about the fiasco, which has already seen Osaka slammed for not congratulating Mboko, Catherine Whitaker was the latest to give her thoughts.
She did not hold back in her assessment, telling The Tennis Podcast: “Yeah, I mean, I think two things can be true, right? Like, I don’t think runners-up should be made to speak.
“I think, just because some people, and Karen Khachanov is an example of this, find it within themselves to do an incredibly magnanimous job of it. It doesn’t mean it’s not a pretty insane thing to expect a losing player to do. I think staying on the court at all for the ceremony is a pretty underratedly bananas element of this sport.
“So I do agree with you. I have sympathy with anybody being made to address a crowd, especially a crowd that’s been against you. But I think that can be true, and you can also criticise how she handled that in the moment, kind of making allowances for the circumstances or not, like, it was really bad.”
And it was bad, as she would go on to pinpoint: “It was really bad, not because she was upset and disappointed. Like, you’ve seen upset and disappointed in those sorts of scenarios, and I think people have given that a lot of grace and sympathy. Like, this, she came off as rude and entitled. I think that was a bit of a tough scene.
“You know, she was applauded up to the microphone and she said, “Thanks, I guess.” in a very childish way, and then sort of gave that list of thank yous, forgot to congratulate Mboko, which I’m sure she does feel terrible about after the fact, but it still happened, and it still is now overshadowing the achievements of this 18 year old who idolised Naomi Osaka growing up and she said that in a press conference earlier in the week and Osaka was asked about it and said, you know, she was really chuffed to hear that and it just… Oh, it left such a sour feeling.”
Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
Whitaker did sympathise with her, but also felt that Naomi Osaka’s decision to snub the following press conference marked a missed opportunity to end this saga before it had even begun: “And look, I don’t know what was going on for why she didn’t want to come to press.
“But I think that was a missed opportunity for her to front up to it, because, as you say, I think those are tough situations. If you come to press afterwards and you say, Look, I was just, my mind was swirling, that didn’t go great. I would like to set things right here and now. I think that puts it to bed, to be honest.
“So it’s a shame you didn’t come to press, but I also do respect and agree with the right to not do that if you’re not in a fit mental state to do so. But personally, I don’t give Osaka an entirely free pass on this one, despite all of the circumstances.”
Naomi Osaka did apologise to Victoria Mboko
Osaka has since apologised to the 18-year-old, taking to Threads to express her regret for the moment.
This is one of many explanations she has had to give since, with the backlash, and her own conscience, likely forcing her hand.
She wrote, to hopefully put an end to this Canadian Open chapter: “Thanks Montreal, it’s been a really great run. I also want to say sorry and congratulations to Victoria. You played a great match and have an amazing career ahead! I realize I didn’t congratulate you on the court.
“Honestly I was in a daze and I was so focused on not having the same speech as IW 2018 finals or the Jenny/Jennifer situation that I tried to make my speech as short as possible. Thanks everyone for the week, see you in NY.”
Hopefully, this can finally put an end to a tiresome saga for the 27-year-old, with Whitaker later congratulating her for finally addressing the issue head on.
AloJapan.com