Naomi Osaka’s sister defends four-time Grand Slam winner on social media before deleting post

French Open
Naomi Osaka disappointed

Naomi Osaka’s sister Mari took to social media to defend her sister’s decision not to speak to the media at the French Open in order to protect her mental health but later deleted the post.

World No 2 Osaka won her opening match at Roland Garros on Sunday, beating Patricia Maria Tig in straight sets, but she went through with her promise not to attend the post-match press conference.

The 23-year-old Japanese star had announced her media boycott before the tournament, citing mental health reasons.

However, she was hit with a $15,000 (approximately £10,500) fine for refusing to fulfill her media commitments while the four Grand Slams also threatened her with expulsion if she does not change her mind.

Naomi Osaka fined £10.5k over media boycott, threatened with French Open expulsion

“We have advised Naomi Osaka that, should she continue to ignore her media obligations during the tournament, she would be exposing herself to possible further code of conduct infringement consequences,” a statement read.

Osaka herself took to Twitter on Sunday evening to post a cryptic message stating “anger is a lack of understanding. change makes people uncomfortable”.

Her sister and former WTA player Mari, meanwhile, went on Reddit to give her side of the story as she also hit back at people who are “picky” about the term mental health.

“She sucks at explaining her actions most of the time and she’s playing a grand slam so there’s even less of a chance that she will take her time to dwell and explain something that she doesn’t even want to think about,” Mari wrote and added that her sister’s confidence was “completely shattered” after her defeat at the Italian Open.

She added: “She is protecting her mind hence why it is called mental health. So many people are picky on this term thinking you need to have depression or have some sort of disorder to be able to use the term mental health.”

The post was later deleted with Mari writing “Ok so I f***** up” adding “I’m sorry Naomi I probably made the situation worse”.

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