Rafael Nadal feels 'terrible' for Naomi Osaka but says heckling 'happens' after Indian Wells incident

ByEurosport

Published 15/03/2022 at 08:32 GMT

Naomi Osaka was visibly upset after she was heckled during her loss against Veronika Kudermetova at Indian Wells. And while Rafael Nadal says he feels terrible for the 24-year-old, he added that heckling happens in the real world, and athletes should be prepared for it. Nadal beat Dan Evans at Indian Wells to seal a 17th straight win this year.

Nadal feels 'terrible' for Osaka, but crowd abuse 'in the real world, happens'

Rafael Nadal says that while the kind of heckling Naomi Osaka was subjected to at Indian Wells should never happen, elite-level athletes should be “prepared” to deal with it.

A spectator shouted “Naomi, you suck” at her on Saturday during her straight sets defeat against Veronika Kudermetova. It left the four-time Grand Slam champion visibly upset.

Osaka requested to address the fan using the umpire’s microphone – a request which was denied – but in her post-match interview referenced a video of abuse being aimed at Serena and Venus Williams at the same tournament in 2001 as a reason for the heckling affecting her.

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“To be honest, I’ve gotten heckled before. It didn’t really bother me, but it’s like, heckled here,” she said. "I’ve watched a video of Venus and Serena getting heckled here and if you’ve never watched it, you should watch it. And I don’t know why, but it went into my head and it got replayed a lot.”

And after his defeat against Alexander Bublik, Andy Murray said that he sympathised with Osaka, but suggested players must be prepared for heckling.

It was a sentiment that Nadal seemed to echo in his post-match press conference after he beat Dan Evans 7-5 6-3.

"These kind of questions are tough to answer because, in some way... I mean, the easy answer for me is I feel terrible about what happened," began Nadal.

However, the 21-time Grand Slam champion added, "in the real world", heckling from spectators happens.

"That never should happen. But the real thing and in the real world, that happens," he added.

“I feel very sorry for her [Naomi Osaka], but we [tennis players] are having, in my opinion, a great life. We are very lucky people that we are able to enjoy amazing experiences because of our life, because we are tennis players.

“We make money. And, even if it is terrible to hear from that [negativity from the crowd], we need to be prepared for that. We need to resist these kind of issues that can happen when you are exposed to the people.

“And, at the same time, as we like a lot when the people are supporting [us], when something like this happens, we need to accept [it] and move forward.

“And I understand that probably Naomi has suffered a lot with her, kind of, issues that she has - mental issues. So the only thing that I wish her is [to] recover well from that and wish her all the very best. But the life is... Nothing is perfect in this life and we need to be ready for adversities."