Hiram Moreno
Naomi Osaka has not had the best of comebacks to the French Open after withdrawing from the tournament in 2021, as the Japanese was eliminated in the first round by the American Amanda Anisimova after losing 5-7, 4-6, and during her post-match press conference she revealed that is considering not participating in the next edition of Wimbledon.
The decision of the Japanese has to do with the statement made by the ATP and WTA circuit recently, which announced that the competition will not deliver ranking points to participating tennis players after the decision of the All England Lawn Tennis Club — the organization in charge of Wimbledon — to ban Russian and Belarusian tennis players after “pressure” from the British government after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
If this is the case, it would be the second consecutive edition that the current #38 in the WTA ranking misses Wimbledon, since she was not present the previous year after having retired from the courts to take care of her mental health.
Speaking of which, this is precisely the main reason why Naomi Osaka is not convinced to participate in Wimbledon, since the decision that the tournament does not deliver points is “affecting her mentality” and “she is not 100% sure of participating” as she lacks competitive motivation.
I’m leaning more towards not playing given the current circumstances. I’m the type of player that gets motivated by seeing my ranking go up. The intention of this measure was good, but the execution is all over the place. I’m sure there will be some swings with the whole point of the situation. So, I think I’ll make my decision.
Naomi Osaka
She Won’t be Able to Win, but Naomi Osaka Will Surely Lose
Although Wimbledon will not award points for the current WTA ranking, tennis players on both the ATP and WTA circuits will lose points after this edition of Wimbledon 2022, something that did not seem to matter to some players.
The points obtained in the previous English Grand Slam will be removed from the ranking of the players as stipulated by the ATP rules, since it will be 52 weeks since the previous edition of the tournament.
“I feel like if I play Wimbledon it will be more of an exhibition,” Naomi Osaka said. The event will take place in just over a month, so the Japanese will have enough time to decide what to do.
