Naomi Osaka's decision to step away from tennis shines light on athlete burnout

A tearful Naomi Osaka had trouble finding the words, but she pushed through.

After a painful, third-round loss to 18-year-old phenom Leylah Fernandez, Osaka — the defending U.S. Open women's singles champion — admitted to the world that tennis was not bringing her the kind of joy that an athlete’s chosen sport should bring.

“When I win, I don’t feel happy. I feel more like a relief,” she told reporters last week. “And then when I lose, I feel very sad, and I don’t think that’s normal.”

For a few minutes, she stumbled and choked up. “I’m kind of at this point where I’m trying to figure out what I want to do, and I honestly don’t know when I’m going to play my next tennis match,” she said, pulling her visor over her eyes. “I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while.”

In recent months, Osaka has become a champion for mental health — for athletes, and everyone else. Many have praised the tennis star’s decision to step away from her sport as courageous. Saying “it’s OK to not be OK” helps others find strength, too. The conversation has rolled on, with many speaking out in support and others sharing their own struggles with mental health.

Now, that conversation is evolving.

One of the lasting legacies of this year’s U.S. Open will likely be the conversation around burnout among some of the world’s greatest athletes, especially in tennis. As raw as a tearful Osaka may have been in that post-match press conference, she is far from the first star to fall so publicly in the world of tennis, or to admit that the game had become joyless.

In the 1980s, Sweden’s Bjorn Borg walked away from tennis because, as he told The New York times at the time, the sport was no longer fun. Others, including Jennifer Capriati, who set a number of youngest-ever records around her professional debut in 1990 at just 13 years old, struggled with drug abuse and arrests in the public eye, before making a triumphant return.

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But there’s a bigger picture, experts say. The burnout faced by Osaka and the reasons that many may be driven from their sport are not uncommon, and that commonality goes beyond the playing field.

“Athletes are human, and they have emotions just like the general population — and just like many professionals, burnout of their careers,” said Pete Economou, a Rutgers University associate professor and program director with the department of applied psychology

Osaka's struggles have been years-long. When announcing her withdrawal from the French Open in late May — following criticism and fines for not participating in post-match press conferences — Osaka admitted she had been battling “long bouts of depression” since her U.S. Open title in 2018. That year, she was thrust into the limelight after defeating Serena Williams for the championship in a highly publicized spectacle.

But stresses for athletes go beyond the court. The pressure has also amplified beyond traditional media, through avenues such as social media, where anyone with an internet connection can amplify their point of view.

“Social media has changed the landscape in which people are living,” Economou said. “It changes the landscape in which athletes are performing. It’s not just a Grand Slam. It’s everything in the middle. It’s being recorded when you go into dinner with a boyfriend or girlfriend or being expected to be a voice on social justice issues — and then when you are, it’s wrong that you are, and when you don’t, it’s wrong when you don’t.”

At last year’s U.S. Open, Osaka showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. She wore seven different face masks, each with the name of a Black person whose death sparked ongoing protests about racial injustice nationwide: Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile and Tamir Rice.

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This year, just days before the 2021 U.S. Open began, Osaka took to Instagram and shared a heartfelt message to her 2.8 million followers. In the post, she reflected on the past year. She admitted being hard on herself and not basking in her achievements. She encouraged people to focus on the little wins, like simply waking up in the morning.

“I know I give my heart to everything I can and if that’s not good enough for some then my apologies but I can’t burden myself with those expectations anymore,” Osaka wrote. “Seeing everything that’s going on in the world I feel like if I wake up in the morning that’s a win.”

Though Osaka may be one of the more high profile professional athletes to step away from their sport to focus on themselves, others have followed. On Thursday, United States Women’s National Soccer Team forward Christen Press announced she was stepping away from the game for a “couple of months.”

“I’ve been a professional player for 10 years," she said. "And I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve been available for nearly every professional match for both club and country. And yet, that has come with a focus, intensity, and prioritization that has left little room for much else,” Press wrote.

“I’ve made the difficult decision to take a couple of months away from the game to focus on my mental health, spiritual growth, and processing grief,” Press wrote.

Melanie Anzidei is a reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: anzidei@northjersey.com

Twitter: @melanieanzidei