In the match in the first round of Indian Wells 2022, Naomi Osaka played with Veronika KermoMetova of Russia. And when the match is happening, the incident appears from the stands. An audience threw off offended, causing the Japanese star to be inhibited.
The people present on the field heard the sentence from this man as “Naomi, bad things!”. They also showed dissatisfaction with this defamation attitude, so they booed the man to stop.
I don't understand what this man's actual motive is, but what he says has adversely affected Osaka. Afterwards, she went to the referee's seat to ask for intervention, but the referee explained that they did not know who insulted who she was so they could not act.
Osaka returned to the yard in the inhibitory mind. When she was about to serve, she shed tears. And after being psychologically affected, leading to the loss of continuous points, she talked to the surveillance on the field by intervention.
Experts who read the image have translated the statement that supervised the match to Osaka: “If it happens again, we will find him.”
But too late, Osaka has no mind to play. She lost easily in 2 sets with the ratios of 0-6 and 4-6, resulting in being eliminated at Indian Wells, the tournament she had expected a lot to regain her top position.
Previously, the Williams sisters also had racism at Indian Wells, leading to the boycott of this tournament. Osaka is the latest case that makes experts have to speak up to improve the protection for colored players.
