If Indian Wells sounds familiar to you, it is because this sports event has become more notorious in recent years instead of the prestigious tennis tournament that it is.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, 24, was reduced to tears after she was heckled at Indian Wells in Southern California on Saturday, March 12, 2022. Indian Wells the city, which the tournament is named after, is about 120 miles east of Los Angeles, close to Palm Springs in the middle of the desert.
Osaka was routed in the championship of the tournament, not winning a single game in the first set before rallying to make it a contest in the second set. However, Osaka lost in straight sets to Veronika Kudermetova at the BNP Paribas Masters in Indian Wells, 6-0, 6-4.
During the second set, a wayward spectactor yelled “Naomi, you suck!” according to Yahoo! Sports, prompting Osaka to complain to the umpire and then begin crying as she tried to serve again.
After losing the title game, Osaka took an uncommon approach and stayed to be interviewed despite the loss. There, Osaka said she remembered what happened to the Williams sisters at this same event.
Despite the tournament being considered the biggest tennis tournament outside of the four Grand Slam events, this is the place that Venus and Serena Williams boycotted for 14 years after they were racially harassed 21 years ago.
That immediately came to Osaka’s mind when she heard the heckler.
“I just wanted to say thank you, I feel like I cry enough on camera,” she began after the match.
“To be honest, I’ve been heckled before, it doesn’t really bother me, but being heckled here, I watched a video of Venus and Serena getting heckled here. If you’ve never watched it you should watch it, and I don’t know why, but it got into my head and it got replayed a lot.”
