Tennis star Naomi Osaka is addressing the challenge of being a woman in sports. The 24-year-old talked about the double standards for men and women in the athletic world on the Victoria’s Secret VS Voices Podcast last week.
During the podcast, Osaka recalled her 2018 US Open women’s singles final match against Serena Williams, during which the latter engaged in a verbal altercation with chair umpire Carlos Ramos.
Williams was given three separate on-court violations and later suggested that the umpire’s actions were motivated by sexism.
“Definitely if a male player did that, it wouldn’t have been so broadcasted,” Osaka told host Amanda de Cadenet when asked about the repercussions for Williams and subsequent backlash to her response.
“There’s actually been male players that have done far worse, like literally last year and this year, and they don’t get news reports at all.”
“So I’m not sure if it’s because Serena is Serena, or if people just wanted to write negative things. I definitely felt like I can’t say that if we were both male players the outcome would have been the same way.”
Continuing, she added, “But I do know that people are very interested in Serena and whatever she does is going to get news attention.—AP
