<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This bit from Naomi Osaka stands out, on talking to the media: "I know it's to grow the sport and all these amazing things but at some point I also feel like talking to us is a privilege" <a href="https://t.co/Dx5TOddKli">https://t.co/Dx5TOddKli</a></p>— Simon Cambers (@scambers73) <a href="https://twitter.com/scambers73/status/1432403409282469894?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A long time ago before there was social media, as a tennis fan, the only interaction I had with tennis was reading Jon Wertheim's questions blog on Sports Illustrated. As someone who didn't readily have internet access in Jamaica, as soon as I migrated and was introduced to fast internet (not dial up), every Wednesday I eagerly waited for the SI colum with Jon to come up so that I could read questions from readers to Jon about tennis players. At that time, I did not really get a chance to watch much tennis as if you really wanted to watch a match, you literally had to find a skanky stream on livesport or someone on some chat room would post a live stream which was perhaps infected with viruses. That is how much we loved the sport.
I recall writing in my questions and it was a joy to see my name published with my question and a response from Jon. To this day, Jon Wertheim remains one of my fave tennis journalists (even if I have not forgiven him for the low rent comment).
Fast forward and now we have social media. We have Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. There is also a multitude of other platforms, some of which I have never heard of. I still try and read Jon Wertheim's column, but I do find it hard to find it what with the death of Sports Illustrated and Jon's move to Tennis Channel.
Why am I writing all of this? I saw a comment attributed to Naomi Osaka recently about the privilege that the media should have in having the ability to speak to tennis players. I know that these days the herd thing is to denigrate the media, after all, they have not really covered themselves in glory, but I find that particularly comment quite galling.
One of the ways in which I came to love and admire many tennis players that I have never had the chance to watch play was by going through the archives of the New York Times, Sports Illustrated and many other newspapers to find out what was written then, read the comments from fans and then get the opportunity to form my own opinion. A case in point, I never knew about the reason why Serena and Venus never played Indian Wells until I read Jon Wertheim's column from way back when.
I don't follow a lot of celebrities on social media as frankly they are always selling something. You never get to connect with them because you don't know whether the person who is managing the social media of X player is actually X or some person assisting X to sell something. For that reason I don't mind the press conference. I like the fact that real journalists get an opportunity to ask questions, and players have to think about a response or in some cases mail in a response to a question that they find difficult to answer.
The press conference provides a way for the athlete to respond to issues that they may not be comfortable with, and as they have their own agency, they can decline to answer a question on the spot. It is their right. But to say that the media should feel privileged to sit in a room with someone whose job it is to play tennis is taking this to a level of ultimate disrespect.
If the quote as mentioned above is correct (and again, the media has not covered itself in glory in bringing us the news), I think it is a comment that is in poor taste and whomever is advising Ms. Osaka should have her clarify her comment as soon as possible.
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