Naomi Osaka decides to leave the French Open 2021 for long bouts of depression that she has been suffering since the 2018 US Open (in which Osaka defeated Serena Williams).
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) May 31, 2021
Naomi Osaka has been a vocal advocate for social justice and she recently caught a lot of media attention wearing masks with the names of Black victims of police brutality, including Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir Rice and George Floyd.
In Japan, however, Osaka has been a target of online bullying for her mixed-root heritage from Japan, the U.S., and Haiti. This Japan Time article (which was published just a week before the French Open) talks about how racialized bullying still frequently happens in Japan.
