“But also, at the same time, I recognise the fact that maybe the WTA and ATP wanted to do something like this but they needed a push from a player to do something like this? So maybe I was sort of their, you know, that one player.”
Osaka said she made a promise to herself during the sport’s nearly five-month Covid-19 hiatus to not be shy in the future when it came to speaking her mind. “During quarantine, the biggest thing I thought was, like, when I get out of this, I want to grow as a person and I don’t want to have that many regrets going forward,” said Osaka.
“I’m not sure if it’s a light bulb or if there was any particular moment that sparked me to speak up, but I do feel like it’s been building for a while.” After posting her announcement on Wednesday, Osaka said it was a bit frightening and that she had to turn off her phone because she gets anxious whenever people talk about her.“Honestly, when people say courageous or anything, I don’t really resonate that well with it. I just feel like — not common sense, but this is what I am supposed to be doing in this moment.”