Graf1stClass
Professional
I'll be the first to admit how wrong I was about her. I thought she was simply making excuses and turning her back on the sport that had given her so much. But seeing her crying after yesterday's victory...? I knew that she was making real strides for the past weeks trying to better her tennis results after IW, and I admired her for that, but now I just have to say...
I'm so proud of you for fighting through these personal problems. I know it's not easy trying to find your own happiness, but you're pushing through it. Even without a solid seeding or Top 30 rank...funny how little that can matter when you believe you can.
Now I have to think of it as, we have recently had a player who didn't like the tour life and was happy to retire at the same age Naomi is now. There's nothing wrong with what Barty did, even if it has hurt the tour as a whole. It's the WTA's job to find new and appealing talent, not hers.
But seeing Naomi still sticking around to try and do her best after all of this time when she easily could have left with so much in the bank, with so many deals... It just makes me proud fellows. I don't know how to explain it. She was so overjoyed after struggling back from defeat against her longtime foe Bencic. Now she gets to play Iga her new #1 best friend in a match for the ages. She knew it when she won. She was barely keeping it together after that scraping past Bencic... It just shows how much she cares...
I am so happy for her. I really am. And I'm really sad to say that I was on the 'hate train' as well, believing that she was not fine, running the reality she was trying everything she could do to find her peace just a raise we hadn't seen before. Jason was correct to state that she was playing poorly during the time he was here. I agree with those technical assessments and criticisms. But during our time when we were watching the absolute primes of these players, everything had to be kept in, everything had to be insular, reflecting how our parents told us boys to behave compared to us girls when we were growing up. Showing any mental weaknesses like she did -- you were spoiled and ungrateful..
This woman.... Keep speaking your mind. She's just now waking a lot of us -- including me -- up to the jarring reality that there are so many different kinds of champions at this highest level. That they're all just people too. I'm going to eat my humble pie and keep supporting her, whether she wins this match or loses this match and every other match for the rest of her career afterwards. Either way, Naomi's a champion we've never had. She doesn't have ## players forehand or slice or ## player's light tennis or ##'s serving and volleying or huge angles and grunts... But something tells me that over time we will all appreciate Osaka for struggling to be comfortable with herself. And for openly sharing that with all of us. And for still trying to give it her all out there for all of us, while meanwhile so many of us made fun of her 'social activism'. Unlike certain pressured players, Naomi did not turn to drugs or commit crimes. And even if she's argued with haters online, she still interacted with them.. She acknowledged their existence... She's interacting with all of us. My friend told me she is now streaming on Twitch with us. She wants companionship... I hate to say but unlike Steffi Graf. Someone appealing for other reasons but not as an awkward teenager who only wanted company.
Even after these slams and a huge name, our Naomi is still working her butt off in tennis and fighting her own mind and her detractors, and she is not giving up on any of it. My friends, I for one can relate to that. Whatever anyone else says, Miss Naomi, you have my support from here on. You have more than earned it.
I'm so proud of you for fighting through these personal problems. I know it's not easy trying to find your own happiness, but you're pushing through it. Even without a solid seeding or Top 30 rank...funny how little that can matter when you believe you can.
Now I have to think of it as, we have recently had a player who didn't like the tour life and was happy to retire at the same age Naomi is now. There's nothing wrong with what Barty did, even if it has hurt the tour as a whole. It's the WTA's job to find new and appealing talent, not hers.
But seeing Naomi still sticking around to try and do her best after all of this time when she easily could have left with so much in the bank, with so many deals... It just makes me proud fellows. I don't know how to explain it. She was so overjoyed after struggling back from defeat against her longtime foe Bencic. Now she gets to play Iga her new #1 best friend in a match for the ages. She knew it when she won. She was barely keeping it together after that scraping past Bencic... It just shows how much she cares...
I am so happy for her. I really am. And I'm really sad to say that I was on the 'hate train' as well, believing that she was not fine, running the reality she was trying everything she could do to find her peace just a raise we hadn't seen before. Jason was correct to state that she was playing poorly during the time he was here. I agree with those technical assessments and criticisms. But during our time when we were watching the absolute primes of these players, everything had to be kept in, everything had to be insular, reflecting how our parents told us boys to behave compared to us girls when we were growing up. Showing any mental weaknesses like she did -- you were spoiled and ungrateful..
This woman.... Keep speaking your mind. She's just now waking a lot of us -- including me -- up to the jarring reality that there are so many different kinds of champions at this highest level. That they're all just people too. I'm going to eat my humble pie and keep supporting her, whether she wins this match or loses this match and every other match for the rest of her career afterwards. Either way, Naomi's a champion we've never had. She doesn't have ## players forehand or slice or ## player's light tennis or ##'s serving and volleying or huge angles and grunts... But something tells me that over time we will all appreciate Osaka for struggling to be comfortable with herself. And for openly sharing that with all of us. And for still trying to give it her all out there for all of us, while meanwhile so many of us made fun of her 'social activism'. Unlike certain pressured players, Naomi did not turn to drugs or commit crimes. And even if she's argued with haters online, she still interacted with them.. She acknowledged their existence... She's interacting with all of us. My friend told me she is now streaming on Twitch with us. She wants companionship... I hate to say but unlike Steffi Graf. Someone appealing for other reasons but not as an awkward teenager who only wanted company.
Even after these slams and a huge name, our Naomi is still working her butt off in tennis and fighting her own mind and her detractors, and she is not giving up on any of it. My friends, I for one can relate to that. Whatever anyone else says, Miss Naomi, you have my support from here on. You have more than earned it.
