Naomi Osaka’s match at Indian Wells took a nasty turn when a critic appeared on Saturday.
“Naomi, you suck!” – shouted a woman from the audience during the first set of Osaka against Veronika Kudermetova.
The insult was met with derision from other spectators and seemed to shock the four-time Grand Slam champion. Osaka lost 3-0 in the first set when she begged the referee in her chair to address the audience.
— Can I borrow your microphone? Osaka asked. “I just want to say something. I’m not going to curse. I don’t swear. It just crushes my heart.”
However, Osaka was not allowed to use the microphone. Tournament officials decided that they would find and eject the bully if the match was abandoned a second time. When Osaka finished the match, the hooligans were held back.
The 24-year-old athlete lost the first set to Kudermetova with a score of 6:0. She lost 6-4 in the next set, ending her streak in the round of 16 in California.
After accessing the microphone after the match, Osaka turned to commentary.
“I feel like I’ve cried enough in front of the camera,” Osaka told the crowd. “I have been interrupted before. It didn’t really bother me. But here I got interrupted, I watched the video where Venus and Serena are interrupted here, and if you have never watched it, you should watch it. I don’t know why, but it hit me in the head.”
Osaka cited Serena and Venus Williams’ experiences when the sisters faced violent crowd backlash in Indian Wells in 2001.
Serena Williams said she felt “unwanted, alone and scared” when she was criticized and booed by the crowd. She will not compete in Indian Wells for 14 years. She eventually returned in 2015, ending the boycott of the event.