Tennis players discuss the mental health problems raised by Naomi Osaka

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) – Naomi Osaka was not the first professional tennis player to retire during a Grand Slam tournament due to mental health problems – and he is probably not the last.

Others may not always be as at the forefront as Osaka.

“There have been a lot of players who have had mental health problems, whether you know it or not,” said U.S. Davis Cup captain Mardy Fish, who withdrew from the 2012 U.S. Open when he had a panic attack before he had to face Roger Federer. “I’ve talked to a lot of players over the last eight or nine years that you’ve heard of … who have struggled with stuff like this.”

In video or phone interviews during Wimbledon, which ends on Sunday, and during the French Open, which ends in June, current and former players said they felt their sports might be particularly vulnerable to stress, anxiety and depression.

After all, it’s a stand-alone sport with a mobile lifestyle, no guaranteed pay, and constant evaluation of thumb-up or thumb-down (usually the latter, of course, for most players) based on results and rankings.

There are no teammates you can trust. There are no holidays in “Load Management”. Players can’t even get match coaching in most tournaments.

“If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, if you don’t feel well, there’s nothing,‘ Hey, I’m not going to play this game today, ’” said Fish, who finished 7th in three Slam semi-finals and won an Olympic silver medal. wander all alone. ”

It has increased recently due to the pandemic.

“I like a lot of things to myself, and over time it can only create a big snowball. And then, at one point, you just explode and you’re like, ‘Wow.’ Did they come from it? “” said Jennifer Brady, 26, of Pennsylvania, who was Osaka’s second place in the Australian Open.

Osaka, who won four Grand Slam titles, brought attention to the issue in late May when he withdrew from the French Open before the second round, saying he had “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and that he had “suffered long periods of depression”. He also sat at Wimbledon; he will return to the Olympics.

He is not an isolated example, and such a thing is not limited to tennis. Athletes from different sports have discussed their own experiences, including Olympics Michael Phelps and Gracie Gold, NFL Dak Prescott, NBA Kevin Love and NASCAR Bubba Wallace.

“We’ve been talking about this forever,” said Becky Ahlgren Bedics, director of mental health and wellness at the WTA Women’s Tennis Tour. “Whenever an athlete shares his experience with us or shares it with the world, we can learn something from it, especially if we listen. And we certainly listen.”

In Wimbledon and most tournaments, the WTA provides an on-site doctor so players can request 30- or 60-minute sessions. Also available anytime, anywhere: video or phone conversations.

WTA’s diverse wellness program began in the 1990s. Last year, ATP’s men’s tour announced a partnership with a therapist company.

Some players travel with their own mental coach. Others talk regularly or sometimes with one.

Others say they are looking for a conversation with someone they know, such as a coach or personal trainer.

“I’m someone who has dealt with anxiety since my father died to the point that I couldn’t leave the house. … But I got help,” said Steve Johnson, 31, from California. NCC Single Champion 2011-12, USC. “I talk to the therapist quite often. It’s not a weakness. You have no idea what someone is going through unless you ask them.”

Whether concerns are personal or professional, they exist, as in all walks of life.

That’s why last year’s French Open champion Iga Swiatek is traveling with a sports psychologist. That’s why this year’s French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova needed her psychologist to talk to her about a panic attack that scared her out of the locker room.

“There’s a lot of pressure. I felt it when I was in the 20th world. I felt it when I broke my ankle and came back and I had (ranking) points to defend and people expected the same results from me as before and I wasn’t,” said the 33-year-old Romanian player Mihaela Buzarnescu.

Jamie Murray, a 35-year-old Scot with five Grand Slam titles in the men’s or mixed doubles game and the older brother of triple grandmaster Andy, says the restrictions imposed because of the pandemic.

“We’ve basically just moved from bubble to bubble all over the world. And you can’t get out of tennis. You play a match, they say loss – everything is harder when you lose back to the hotel. Small hotel room, four walls. Sometimes you don’t have fresh air because you can’t open windows. And you just sit there. And the match is right here, “Murray said with his hand in front of his face.

During Wimbledon, all players stayed at one hotel instead of renting private houses with family or friends. British players could not stay home. No one can leave the hotel except travel to the tournament site.

In Paris, players were given one hour of free time per day. The Australian Open players in February did not have the opportunity to leave their hotel rooms at all for two weeks if someone on their flight was positive about COVID-19.

“This is a sensitive time in the lives of all people. These bubbles – you can’t take into account how much it weighs each person,” said Reilly Opelka, 23, who is the highest-ranking American man. “When you have a bad state of mind, it can get dark and it’s scary. It really is. It’s scary.”