App shows support for Naomi Osaka with donation, fine offer

An app that bills itself as helping with “sleep, relaxation and meditation” says it is showing support for Naomi Osaka by offering to pay fines for tennis players who don’t fulfill 2021 Grand Slam media obligations for mental health reasons

By Associated PressPublished June 03, 2021

FILE - Naomi Osaka, of Japan, reacts during her match against Maria Sakkari, of Greece, in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open tennis tournament in Miami Gardens, Fla., in this Wednesday, March 31, 2021, file photo. Sakkari won 6-0, 6-4. Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open on Monday, May 31, 2021, and wrote on Twitter that she would be taking a break from competition, a dramatic turn of events for a four-time Grand Slam champion who said she experiences “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealed she has “suffered long bouts of depression.”(AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File) — © Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

PARIS (AP) — An app that bills itself as helping with "sleep, relaxation and meditation" says it is showing support for Naomi Osaka by offering to pay fines for tennis players who don't fulfill 2021 Grand Slam media obligations for mental health reasons.

Mental health is health. 🎾

To support Naomi Osaka’s decision to prioritize her mental health, Calm is donating $15,000 to @LaureusSport in France, an organization doing incredible work in the mental health space to transform the lives of young people through the power of sport. pic.twitter.com/C53ptXsks5
— Calm (@calm) June 2, 2021

Calm also tweeted Wednesday that it would donate $15,000 — the amount Osaka was fined for skipping her postmatch news conference at the French Open — to a group in France that it says works "in the mental health space."

Osaka is a four-time major champion and the world's No. 2-ranked tennis player who said she didn't want to speak to the press at Roland Garros.

After she was fined and threatened by leaders of all four Grand Slam tournaments with disqualification or suspension,

https://apnews.com/article/europe-french-open-tennis-entertainment-sports-7fe5d6be63ccd996653070a935852be2 and take a break from competition.

She revealed she experiences "huge waves of anxiety" before meeting with the media and said she has "suffered long bouts of depression."

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