Naomi Osaka Cries, Addresses Crowd After Fan Heckles Her During Loss at Indian Wells

Naomi Osaka was brought to tears after being heckled during her second-round match at the 2022 BNP Paribas Open on Saturday.

An unidentified woman could be heard screaming "Naomi, you suck!" after Veronika Kudermetova broke Osaka's serve in the first game of the match. A visibly upset Osaka asked to have the fan thrown out of the match and requested to speak to the crowd to address the heckling, but her requests were denied by the chair umpire.

Osaka never recovered from the incident, losing 6-0, 6-4, and addressed the crowd after the match.

"To be honest, I've gotten heckled before; it didn't really bother me," Osaka said. "But [being] heckled here, I watched a video of Venus and Serena [Williams] getting heckled here, and if you've never watched it, you should watch it. I don't know why, but it went into my head, and it got replayed a lot. I'm trying not to cry."

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The Williams sisters famously boycotted Indian Wells for more than a decade after Venus, Serena and their father Richard were heckled and booed at the 2001 event. Venus had withdrawn from the event ahead of a semifinal matchup with Serena just four minutes before it began, leading to accusations Richard manipulated matches to favor his daughters. Fans angrily jeered and made racial taunts at Richard and Venus when they attempted to watch Serena's finals matchup with Kim Clijsters.

"Even when I went back 14 years later, it was very traumatizing," Williams told Will Smith on an episode of Red Table Talk. "Talk about post-traumatic stress and mental anxiety. I remember sitting in the bathroom thinking, 'Wait, I'm not gonna go back. I just don't think I should do this. What if they start booing again?' It was really hard for me."

Serena and Venus vowed to never return to the California tournament, but Serena came back to raucous applause in 2015 and Venus made her return a year later.

Osaka, who idolized the Williams sisters growing up, has been open about her struggles with mental health. She withdrew from the 2021 French Open and Wimbledon tournaments amid mental health concerns related to media requirements. She took another hiatus after losing in the third round of the 2021 U.S. Open, saying tennis did not make her happy anymore, but she has seemingly been in a better mental space since returning this year.

"I want to feel like every time I step on the court I'm having fun," Osaka told reporters in January. "I can walk off the court knowing that even if I lost, I tried as hard as I could. I'm the type of person that cared a little bit too much about the results and the ranking and stuff like that. And I just need to find a way to enjoy the game again because that's the reason why I was playing in the first place."

Osaka's multiple hiatuses from tennis have led to a massive drop in the rankings, with the former world No. 1 entering Indian Wells ranked No. 78. She has not won an event since the 2021 Australian Open.