Naomi Osaka said she felt ‘ungrateful’ for not enjoying life as a tennis icon, and that she was ‘scared’ of the media

• Tennis star Naomi Osaka said she felt "ungrateful" for not enjoying her tennis in the past year.
• The 23-year-old has had a tumultuous year, missing numerous tournaments amid mental health issues.
• Osaka said being one of the best tennis players on earth "started not being like an accomplishment."
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Naomi Osaka has said she felt "ungrateful" for not enjoying her life as a tennis star during the past year.

The 23-year-old is one of the world's top players but has endured a difficult year starting with her refusal to speak to the media at the French Open. After being fined $15,000, she dropped out of the tournament entirely, citing her mental health as the reason.

Speaking to the press during the Cincinnati Masters this week, the Japanese player said she wondered if she had become "scared" of the media and that she was "desensitized" to the accomplishment of being a top player.

"I was wondering why was I so affected, I guess, like what made me not want to do media.

"I'm wondering if I was scared, because sometimes I would see headlines of like players losing and then the headline the next day would be like a collapse or they're not that great anymore," she said at a press conference at the Western & Southern Open as reported by Reuters.

"So then I was thinking waking up every day, for me, I should feel like I'm winning. Like, the choice to go out there and play, to go see fans that people come out and watch me play, that itself is an accomplishment.

"I'm not sure when along the way I started desensitizing that. Like it started not being like an accomplishment for me. So I felt like I was very ungrateful on that fact."

In her first appearance in front of the media since her French Open withdrawal, Osaka was left in tears after a question from a local reporter about how she benefits from a high-media profile but doesn't like talking to the media.

According to tennis reporter Ben Rothenberg, the question was "aggressively toned" and prompted Osaka to break down in tears. She left the conference for a while before returning to answer questions from Japanese reporters.

Osaka returned to the court on Wednesday for the first time since her early elimination from the Tokyo Olympics and defeated US teen sensation Coco Gauff in Cincinnati during the second round of the traditional pre-US Open warm up tournament.

The four-time Grand Slam champion also said that COVID restrictions had made things "really stressful," but that in recent weeks she has been given a new perspective by events like the earthquake in Haiti and the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan.

"Seeing the state of the world, like how everything is in Haiti, Afghanistan right now, is definitely really crazy.

"And for me to just be hitting a tennis ball in the United States right now and have people come and watch me play. I would want to be myself in this situation rather than anyone else in the world," she said.