Billie Jean King, Rafael Nadal, and more react to Naomi Osaka's decision to skip all press conferences during French Open

Earlier this week, tennis superstar Naomi Osaka announced her decision to decline all interviews during the French Open.

“I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes mental health and this rings very true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one,” Osaka wrote. “We’re often sat there and asked questions that we’ve been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.”

She said she appreciates a few of the journalists who have interviewed her since she was young, but she doesn’t appreciate how many members of the media make athletes re-live poor performances. She views it as “kicking a person while they’re down.”

“I hope the considerable amount that I get fined for this will go towards a mental healthy charity,” Osaka wrote.

Many have responded to Osaka’s decision and comments, including all-time great Billie Jean King, who said she’s “torn” as she tries to learn from both sides of the situation.

“While it’s important that everyone has the right to speak their truth, I have always believed that as professional athletes we have a responsibility to make ourselves available to the media,” King told Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times via email. “In our day, without the press, nobody would have known who we are or what we thought. There is no question they helped build and grow our sport to what it is today.”

King acknowledged that everything is different now in the age of social media, but she believes the media still plays an important role in telling the story of professional athletes. There is no question the media needs to honor certain boundaries, King said, but it’s important everyone respects one another.

Current men’s star Rafael Nadal said he respects Osaka and her decision but doesn’t necessarily agree with her stance.

“Without the press, without the people who normally are traveling who are writing the news and achievements that we are having around the world, probably we will not be the athletes that we are today,” Nadal said. “We’re not going to have the recognition that we have around the world, and we will not be popular, no?”

Former tennis star Rennae Stubbs, who now works in media, called it an “amazing moment” for the media to listen and understand how they can do better.

Osaka is the No. 2 seed in the French Open.