Naomi Osaka usually speaks very softly.

When the Japanese gives an interview, she doesn't seem like the biggest global star that women's tennis currently has to offer alongside Serena Williams.

She sounds gentle, her gaze wanders around a little bit miserably.

She giggles a lot.

With the self-confident young athlete, who stands up so impressively for her convictions, for the fight against racism and police violence in the United States, for example, she seems to have only marginally to do at these moments.

Pirmin Clossé

Sports editor.

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    When Osaka gives an interview, it's usually pretty funny. This is another reason why the 23-year-old is so popular. The video, how she once stammered herself with a lot of self-irony through her winning speech after her first tournament victory on the professional tour and ultimately attested to herself the "worst acceptance speech of all time", is still a hit on the Internet after years. In addition to her athletic skills, Osaka also fascinates with her fine sense of humor. She has mastered the keyboard of social media and is a modern sports star.

    But over the past week, Osaka has revealed something that puts its public image in a different light.

    She reported that she had struggled with recurring "phases of depression" since her first Grand Slam tournament success at the 2018 US Open.

    She also speaks of a “social phobia” that inhibits her, especially when speaking in public and at press conferences with many journalists.

    Against this background, Osaka's amiable eccentricity now also appears to be an expression of her excessive demands.

    An athlete who is forced to do things by the system in which she moves that stirs her fears.

    At first there was a lack of understanding

    At the French Open currently being held in Paris, Osaka rebelled against this very system - and thus sparked a stir. Before the start of the tournament, she announced a media boycott because she did not see the athletes' “mental health” being adequately appreciated. She skipped her first press conference and was fined for it. She was even threatened with expulsion from the tournament. In the beginning, she received mostly incomprehension from her professional colleagues, partly because she had attacked media representatives and tournament organizers so harshly. Then she voluntarily withdrew from the tournament and made her mental health problems public. The interpretation of the events changed fundamentally.

    Osaka is now taking a break from competition. What remains is the topic. She put it on the agenda. The tournament organizers announced that they would be working on “sensible solutions” for the future in order to be able to take better care of the mental health of the athletes despite all the pressures of media work. Osaka also wants to be part of this as soon as she returns to the professional tour. It still seems taboo, especially in sport, to speak openly about mental problems and illnesses such as depression. In an environment that demands constant top performance, it is apparently even more difficult for athletes than elsewhere to admit weaknesses.

    Science knows this phenomenon from many areas. “There are other performance-oriented environments in which we have similar taboos,” says Professor Markus Raab, head of the performance psychology department at the German Sport University in Cologne. The field of work of classical music, parts of the economy such as certain management consultancies were part of it. "Regardless of whether you are talking to a top manager, a top journalist or a top athlete," says Raab, "as soon as the environment is the cause of stress, we have very high values ​​there."