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Naomi Osaka on Prioritizing Mental Health: “Don’t View Self-Care as a Weakness”
The two-time US Open winner shared how the sport has changed in its approach to athletes’ emotional wellness.
Naomi Osaka is sharing what prioritizing self-care has done for her health and her career. In a recent interview, Osaka spoke to Complex Sports about how focusing on her mental and emotional health has become integral to her approach as an athlete.
“I would say prioritizing mental health has changed my preparation for tournaments a lot,” she explained in a video shared across social media. “I’m able to identify certain things a lot more and obviously the tournaments have been really accepting and… hopefully understand the athlete's mind a lot more.”
Osaka made headlines in 2021 when she withdrew from the French Open, citing depression and anxiety she’d endured since winning her first major at the 2018 US Open.
"I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris," Osaka wrote at the time. "I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and message could have been clearer."
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In the years since, the 27-year old acknowledges that a shift has happened in how people view athletes’ emotional wellness.
“We’ve been able to change quite a lot,” Osaka shared. “Because they have quiet rooms and things like that now.”
She’s enjoying a remarkable run at this year’s U.S. Open. The two-time champion, Osaka, defeated 2023 US Open champ and world No. 3, Coco Gauff, to advance to the quarterfinal for the first time since the 2021 Australian Open — and since she returned to tennis following the birth of her daughter.
In the conversation with Complex Sports, Osaka offered words of encouragement to young athletes who may feel similar anxieties and pressures to pretend they’re “ok” when they’re not.
“I’d like to say to the younger athletes, you don’t have to view self-care as a weakness,” she said. “And you should also know that… like for me, I tend to care about others more than myself–but you should also take the time to love yourself, too. And that is a form of self-care.”