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Pressure For Players To Give Interviews

Well as I feared in my original post, the "great care and concern for the welfare of players" went straight to fines and threats of expulsion. How predictable. At least one or two, including Serena are breaking cover.

They are sports people and you want to see the best players not just those prepared to put themselves through unnecessary 'interviews'.
 
Re Serena - I think the question about signalling goodbye to the crowd/retirement did it...that wasn't particularly sensitive. And perhaps those sorts of questions could be easier to be made off limits. Just ask them about the match.
I wouldn't make any of the losers give interviews if they were uncomfortable. I mean how illuminating are they? Serena made a ton of unforced errors and couldn't really explain why. Game over.
 
Frizzy said:
Isn’t this incident a example of that awful phrase ‘you live in the public you accept the consequences’’
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No.

She may have dreamed of playing tennis at the highest level, I doubt she ever anticiapted what that could mean. To be fair, I doubt whether anyone here can. I would imagine even the strongest personalities find the interviews at best a chore. As it happens, if a player wants to say a few words, or take some questions - that's fine and I'm sure many would. But thrusting microphones under people's noses when they have given everything and come up short is not something anyone should be forced to do imo. It adds nothing but ghoulish fascination.
 
SteveS1 said:
No.

She may have dreamed of playing tennis at the highest level, I doubt she ever anticiapted what that could mean. To be fair, I doubt whether anyone here can. I would imagine even the strongest personalities find the interviews at best a chore. As it happens, if a player wants to say a few words, or take some questions - that's fine and I'm sure many would. But thrusting microphones under people's noses when they have given everything and come up short is not something anyone should be forced to do imo. It adds nothing but ghoulish fascination.
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Players train to be good at their sports both physically and mentally and this should include being capable of answering a few questions.

"Breaking cover" ??? Serena was asked a question that she answered. She wasn't hiding in some bushes.
 
I am sure that the 30? 40? million dollars she is picking up this year will be able to get her the very best help. Even assuming that it isn't a highly convenient ruse.
 
lordsummit said:
Reports on the radio this morning have mentioned bouts of depression since 2018. I often suspect that those who criticise others for protecting their mental health have been fortunate enough not to have had to protect theirs.
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Agreed - though some may be in need of some treatment themselves but don’t realise it.
 
Vinny said:
I am sure that the 30? 40? million dollars she is picking up this year will be able to get her the very best help. Even assuming that it isn't a highly convenient ruse.
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To suggest that someone with mental health issues is making it up in some way is poor. Very Poor, and points to the fact that mental health issues are still not recognised sufficiently
 
Bart said:
Agreed - though some may be in need of some treatment themselves but don’t realise it.
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Some may need treatment and do realise it but are too embarrassed and ashamed to seek it because of the prevalence of some of the attitudes expressed here.
 
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Bart said:
Agreed - though some may be in need of some treatment themselves but don’t realise it.
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Indeed. I will admit to some skin in the game. I have three friends who have lost either brothers or children to suicide. I also spent a good period of time driving to work thinking how nice it would be if I had an accident as I wouldn’t have to go in that day, I can remember sitting in the car-park trying to gather the strength to go in, and also walking up the back of the school in the pouring rain to avoid walking past the office of the person who was making my life a misery, not through my own incompetence, but because they wanted to get a cheap NQT instead. An epiphany was mine recently when I read something about gaslighting. It’s what they did to me. They’d tell me one week that I just needed to do one thing, so I’d do that, and then the next week it would be something else. Sometimes I wanted to turn the wheel right and cause the accident.
Never second guess that someone is making up a mental illness.
 
The cause of Williams' delicate mental state is a lot more deep-rooted than a couple of s**tty post-match Q&A sessions.

She has been conditioned all of her life not to lose and / or has spent a very successful career thinking she can't or mustn't lose. When she does lose, it was almost inevitable she would struggle w/out support.
 
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I had a bout of severe depression back in 2014/15. If you know your PHQ9 and GAD7 tests we're talking near top scores. Funnily enough it didn't stop me doing my job but 'little things round the edges' like having to answer the phone, or just order something, or even pick a dropped screw off the floor huge obstacles that required a lot of effort and created enormous stress. I too had thoughts along the lines of "I could just hang myself from this tree with the dog lead" or "just jump from that railway bridge". Bizarrely it was the thought of inconveniencing others that stopped me doing it, I couldn't bear the thought of hurting a train driver or delaying hundreds of passengers. It took just 6 weeks of CBT with a great therapist to dissolve the thought processes that were looping around in my head and thank goodness it hasn't returned since.

Whether you're paid 23k or 23 million a year it doesn't mean you can't suffer. I suspect Osaka's having to deal with the interview was her last straw and something she didn't want to have to do. It doesn't stop her being a great player, that is her profession after all. My issues didn't prevent me being an engineer, it just made life difficult for me and everyone else around me.
 
I'm sure if she'd strained her knee or pulled a hamstring nobody currently clutching their pearls would care less if she withdrew from the tournament, aside from her ardent fans.

But mentioning mental health is like catnip for some, they can't resist having a pop.
 
matt j said:
I'm sure if she'd strained her knee or pulled a hamstring nobody currently clutching their pearls would care less if she withdrew from the tournament, aside from her ardent fans.

But mentioning mental health is like catnip for some, they can't resist having a pop.
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Those years of my depression were like a massive gap in my memory. I did, however, get to visit Wimbledon in 2014 and got to see the Williams sisters playing doubles. Serena, I think it was, was recovering from or succumbing to flu and had to concede the match, but only after missing several serves. We were all glad to see her and accepted the result. But mental health is hidden and it's hard to see. Gosh, I was even happy and excited that day and loved every minute of being there. And real life crept back in later.
 
The thing is, a moderately injured limb doesn’t make you incapable of rational thought. It doesn’t leave you enraged by something really simple, it doesn’t make you behave irrationally. It doesn’t make you feel that even simple things are a massive problem. Depression and anxiety do that to anyone with it. You can’t compare apples and oranges.
 
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