Source : ABC NEWS
Naomi Osaka and Taylor Townsend are piling up wins on the court at the French Open.
Their success comes after drawing attention off the court for organising a dinner for black players before the tournament started.
“It caused a bit of a stir, which I thought was pretty funny because for so long we have been the ones that [are] the minority in a sport where we kind of stick out,” Townsend said.
“And now coming together all of a sudden seems like a problem.”
While Townsend said the reaction from her Instagram post about the evening was “mostly positive”, she said she was aware of the criticism online.
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Several comments on Osaka’s and Townsend’s posts suggested the dinner was “segregation”, while another asked, “When are the white, Latino, and Asian parties?”
It all prompted Townsend to quote a lyric from the rapper Finesse2tymes: “He said, ‘It’s cool when they do it; it’s a problem when I do it.'”
Keeping in the rap theme, Townsend quoted Tupac Shakur in her post about the evening: “Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice; I say the darker the flesh, then the deeper the roots.”
Her caption also thanked Osaka for co-hosting a “dinner that was much bigger than us”.
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“This was not only good for the culture, it was great for the soul #firstofmany,” Townsend wrote.
Besides Osaka and Townsend, the other attendees at the dinner were 2025 French Open champion Coco Gauff, retiring Frenchman Gael Monfils, doubles specialist Asia Muhammad, and retired player-turned TV commentator Chris Eubanks.
“Growing up, there weren’t a lot of tennis players I could look up to that looked like me,” Osaka, whose father is from Haiti and mother is from Japan, said in her Instagram post about the dinner.
“Being a minority in a sport like tennis is very isolating, but the positive is that you keep tabs on everyone that … being blunt, is black. There’s a fellowship, a camaraderie.”
Osaka added in a press conference that she “felt like everyone in that room was a part of my family”.
Black athletes have constantly been forced to address political issues, like Muhammad Ali’s rejection of military service in 1967. (Getty Images)
For Townsend, “it wasn’t just about the culture, it was healing for us to all be able to speak about our journeys”.
Gauff’s title defence ended with a loss to Anastasia Potapova in the third round, but Osaka has reached the fourth round in Paris for the first time in her career while showing off her taste for fashion with her elaborate walk-on outfits.
American player Townsend and Czech partner Kateřina Siniaková, the top-seeded doubles team, have won their opening three matches and are into the quarterfinals.
Gauff beat Townsend in the opening round of the singles, after which a ceremony was held on Court Philippe-Chatrier to honour the 70th anniversary of Althea Gibson’s 1956 French Open victory; the first grand slam title for a black tennis player.
Gibson was also the first black player to compete at a major tennis tournament when she fought with the US Lawn Tennis Association just to get admitted in 1950 to what was then called the US Nationals, now the US Open.
“Taylor and I playing on Philippe-Chatrier is a direct product of Althea Gibson,” Gauff told the crowd.
“It just shows the importance of breaking barriers in all aspects of the world, but especially in sport. I’m very grateful for people like her, and Serena and Venus (Williams), Zina Garrison, for paving the way for us.”
Althea Gibson with baseball legend and fellow civil rights icon Jackie Robinson in 1951. (Getty Images: Harvey Weber/Newsday RM)
The dinner recalls how black athletes, entertainers, musicians and writers have held salons and dinners to celebrate their successes in a familial space as far back as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s and particularly throughout the eras of segregation in the US.
Katrina Adams, a former pro and the first black president of the US Tennis Association, said she was pleased to see “an old tradition” re-emerging.
“In our era in the 80s and 90s, we hosted ‘Soul Food’ Sunday on the middle Sunday of Wimbledon, when there was no play,” Adams said in a comment on Townsend’s post.
“All the black players got together, cooked, ate and enjoyed each other.”
Adams said players like Garrison and Lori McNeil hosted the Wimbledon gatherings for years and that she passed the tradition to the likes of Chanda Rubin, the Williams sisters, MaliVai Washington and Roger Smith.
Townsend and Osaka hardly knew each other before Osaka surprised Townsend by inviting her on a vacation to the Turks and Caicos last year.
Townsend is an extrovert, and Osaka is a very quiet introvert.
“I didn’t know why she invited me,” Townsend said.
“[But] it ended up being the best time, and Naomi and I floated in the ocean on a surfboard for three hours and talked to each other. … We’ve been friends ever since.”
Both players are mothers.
“We share a lot of the same values and principles and morals of how we go about life and how we want to treat people and what type of mothers that we want to be for our children,” Townsend said.
“It goes way beyond tennis.”
AP
