PARIS — Naomi Osaka's withdrawal from the French Open was not the outcome anyone in tennis desired, and yet it happened just the same.
It could likely have been avoided through better communication and smarter decisions, but on Monday night the sport's most prominent young star felt she had no better option than to pull out of the year's second Grand Slam tournament.
Her second-round match with Ana Bogdan will be a walkover for Bogdan instead of another chance for the second-ranked Osaka, 23, to make steps forward on red clay, a surface that has long bedeviled her.
"Above all, it's just really sad: for her, for the tournament, for the sport," said Martina Navratilova, a former No. 1 who has seen plenty of tennis turmoil in her 50 years in the game. "She tried to sidestep or lessen a problem for herself and instead she just made it much bigger than it was in the first place."
It is not wise at this stage to speculate on the full scope of Osaka's issues. She is still coming to grips with them herself, and she said in her withdrawal announcement on social media that she had experienced long bouts of depression since the 2018 U.S. Open that she won by defeating Serena Williams in a tumultuous final.
What is clear is that the catalyst in Paris, if only the catalyst, was one of professional sport's staples: the news conference.
Osaka, citing her mental health, announced ahead of the tournament that she would not "do any press" during the French Open. News conferences are required at the Grand Slams for players who are requested, and Osaka was the first tennis star to make it clear that she intended to break the rule for as long as she was in the tournament.
Her announcement on social media caught the French Open organizers and sport's leadership by surprise. That was her first misjudgment. Her next was failing to be accessible when those tennis leaders justifiably sought more information.