“Why Isn’t the Richest Athlete Speaking Out”: WTA Player Hits Out at Naomi Osaka

Over the last four years, Naomi Osaka has become the dominant face of women’s tennis. Osaka’s recent triumph at the 2021 Australian Open cemented her position as the most consistent player on the WTA Tour.

Due to her massive following, Osaka has also become the highest-paid female athlete in the world according to Forbes. However, the trait that makes Osaka stand apart is her on-court activism, which has been praised by her fans.

WTA player questions Naomi Osaka

Recently, British tennis player Tara Moore hit out at Osaka for not voicing her opinion of providing better facilities to players competing at ITF tournaments.

Moore criticized Osaka when she answered a fan’s question on why the WTA wasn’t working to improve the financial condition of players. In her reply, Moore questioned the 4-time Grand Slam champion instead of not speaking over the issue despite her elder sister, Mari Osaka, playing at the ITF tournaments.

“My question is why isn’t the richest athlete speaking out about the ITFs her sister is currently playing?” wrote Moore, on Twitter.

In fact, Moore also tweeted in reply to another post mentioning the prize money of various events on the men’s and women’s tour. The picture on the post depicted the multiple challenger tournaments on the men’s tour whereas there being no such events on the women’s side.

The ATP Challenger events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, below the ATP Tour. Hence, after looking at the post, Moore expressed her concerns about the need of having challenger events on the women’s tour and urged the WTA to create such tournaments without terming it as an ITF issue.

The 26-year-old seemed baffled over the silence of all the top women’s players and their inability to understand the problem with the current state of affairs.