Following her sensational withdrawal from the French Open, 4-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka is tipped to seek out prominent mental health expert Dr Marshawn ‘Beast Mode’ Lynch in a bid to address her approach to media duties.
The move comes after Osaka elected to withdraw from Roland Garros where she entered as the Number 2 seed for the tournament, citing her displeasure with post-match media requirements.
Skipping her post-match interviews following her First Round win, the 23-year-old specifically referenced her “mental health” and the anxiety caused from press conferences. She was quickly issued a $15,000 fine from tournament officials before confirming her withdrawal from the French Open in protest.
In a bid to recover from the debilitating anxiety, Osaka is tipped to seek one of the world’s most talented PR professionals in sports to address her mental health issues.
“Marshawn Lynch changed the entire landscape of American sports media during his NFL playing days,” said media studies lecturer, Professor Hugh Honey.
“How he addressed the media and offered valuable insight into his decision making as a professional athlete was quite frankly, revolutionary.
“And the thing that gets hugely overlooked, is that his career got better as he went, committed to his PR strategy and really evolved into the dominant player Beast Mode became.”