An unidentified woman Saturday shouting “Naomi, you suck!” brought tennis star Naomi Osaka to tears during a second-round match at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.
During her tilt against Veronika Kudermetova, Osaka stopped the match and asked the chair umpire to remove the heckler and if she could address the crowd—both of which were denied.
“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before, it didn’t really bother me,” Osaka told the crowd after she lost. “But [being] heckled here, I watched a video of Venus and Serena [Williams] getting heckled here, and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it. I don’t know why, but it went into my head, and it got replayed a lot. I’m trying not to cry.”
During the Indian Wells tournament in 2001, fans booed Venus [Williams]**and her father, Richard, during Serena**’s final match because some fans thought the dad was manipulating matches. The boos continued even after Serena won the title; both sisters boycotted the event until the mid2010s.
The four-time grand slam champion made headlines in 2021 for stepping away from tennis—dropping out ofthe French Open and Wimbledon—to focus on her mental health. Osaka returned to competition in January at the Australian Open.
