Naomi Osaka was reduced to tears and exited the podium of a press conference on Monday, following an exchange with a reporter.
The incident occurred on August 16, in what was the Olympian's first WTA press conference since withdrawing from the French Open amidst struggles with her mental health, New York Post reports.
Earlier this year, Osaka was fined $15,000 for refusing to take part in press conferences. - The WTA's no. 2 seeded player later revealed that she did so after suffering from "long bouts of depression" since 2018.
However, on Monday, Osaka become emotional after being asked about her relationship with the press by Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty.
"You’re not crazy about dealing with us, especially in this format, yet you have a lot of outside interests that are served by having a media platform,” Daugherty stated, before asking: "I guess my question is, how do you balance the two and also do you have anything you’d like to share with us about what you did say to Simone Biles?"
Osaka, 23, then asked Daugherty to clarify his points, after which she replied: "That’s interesting. I would say the occasion, like when, to do the press conference is what I feel is the most difficult, but... Sorry, I’m thinking."
She then said: "Ever since I was younger I had a lot of media interest on me because of my background, as well as how I play … I can’t really help that I tweet or that I say that kind of create a lot of news articles... And I know it’s because I won a couple Grand Slams and I’ve gotten to do a lot of press conferences.
"I’m not really sure how to balance the two, and figuring it out at the same time as you are."
However, after moving on to the next question, Osaka began to tear up, and exited the podium for roughly four minutes.
In response to the exchange, Osaka’s agent, Stuart Duguid, later criticized Daugherty's tone in a statement.
Per the NY Post, Duguid said: "The tone of the question was all wrong and (the reporter’s) sole purpose was to intimidate."
He added: "This insinuation that Naomi owes her off-court success to the media is a myth — don’t be so self-indulgent.
"The bully at the Cincinnati Enquirer is the epitome of why player/media relations are so fraught right now. Everyone on that Zoom will agree that his tone was all wrong and his sole purpose was to intimidate. Really appalling behavior."
