4-time Slam champ Osaka out of French Open, cites anxiety

FILE – Japan’s Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Romania’s Patricia Maria Tig during their first round match of the French open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, in this Sunday, May 30, 2021, file photo. Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open on Monday, May 31, and wrote on Twitter that she would be taking a break from competition, a dramatic turn of events for a four-time Grand Slam champion who said she has “suffered long bouts of depression.”(AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the French Open, citing anxiety.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka returns the ball to Romania’s Patricia Maria Tig during their first round match at the Roland Garros stadium Sunday, May 30, 2021 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

The four-time Grand Slam champion announced on Twitter that she was taking a break from competition and revealed she has “suffered long bouts of depression.”

She had declared last week that she would not speak to the media at Roland Garros and was fined $15,000 after she skipped the postmatch news conference following her first-round victory Sunday.

Osaka had framed the matter as a mental health issue.

She said it can create self-doubt to have to answer questions after a loss.

The world’s No. 2-ranked tennis player announced Monday that she thought it best to withdraw “so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris.”