Naomi Osaka\u2019s former coach Brad Gilbert has become the latest voice to criticise the Japanese player after she did not mention Victoria Mboko in her loser\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n
Osaka<\/a> said just 45 words, none of which were \u2018Victoria Mboko\u2019, in her post-match speech after she lost 6-2, 4-6, 1-6 in the Canadian Open final.<\/p>\n Failure to congratulate her opponent has led many to criticise Osaka, a player Mboko has previously said was one of her role models, and the two-time Slam winner took to social media to apologise to her opponent.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThanks, Montreal, it\u2019s been a really great run,\u201d wrote the 27-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cI also want to say sorry and congratulations to Victoria. You played a great match and have an amazing career ahead! I realise I didn\u2019t congratulate you on the court.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I was in a daze and I was so focused on not having the same speech as IW 2018 finals or the Jenny\/Jennifer situation that I tried to make my speech as short as possible. Thanks everyone for the week, see you in NY.\u201d<\/p>\n But her former coach Gilbert said the 27-year-old should have congratulated her opponent on the court, bringing up Osaka\u2019s \u201cstruggles with social anxiety\u201d and suggesting she \u201clet the last few games go.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAfter losing 7\/6 in 3rd, I know Osaka struggles with social anxiety, but gosh congratulate your opponent,\u201d he said on Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cEspecially one that looked up to you, not to mention you just let the last few games go in a final.\u201d<\/p>\n A rare voice of support for Osaka has been Andy Roddick who suggested it is only in tennis where losing players are expected to speak to the media so soon after defeat.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cShe didn\u2019t really want to expand a lot in the post-match speeches,\u201d he said on his Served podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cI see people are saying \u2018she should\u2019ve said\u2026\u2019, I don\u2019t know, we\u2019re the only sport that is forced to talk after we lose.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, we\u2019re not our best selves in that situation, and if people are, great, if they\u2019re not, they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n \u201cI would rather her be friendly with Vicky Mboko all the time than at Grandstand in front of a microphone.<\/p>\n MORE NEWS ON T365<\/strong><\/p>\n Carlos Alcaraz faces Davis Cup challenge with key match just days after US Open<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u2018That man destroyed a lot of my life\u2019 \u2013 Novak Djokovic\u2019s former coach \u2018can\u2019t forgive\u2019 one rival<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if either is true, but Naomi [Osaka] is generally well-liked, polite, everyone likes her, and she doesn\u2019t give a lot sometimes when she\u2019s not ready to give a lot, and that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Michael Jordan did that, they\u2019d be like \u2018He\u2019s such a competitor, he can\u2019t get over it\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to actually use that example with Serena [Williams] all the time; she would go to press sometimes and be really salty.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m like, if that\u2019s Jordan, everyone is celebrating his saltiness, but when it\u2019s Serena, everyone\u2019s writing articles about how salty she is, I don\u2019t know.. It\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Read next: Carlos Alcaraz predicts \u2018years ahead\u2019 of Jannik Sinner rivalry in build up to US Open<\/a><\/p>\n The post Naomi Osaka criticised by former coach for Victoria Mboko omission in \u2018let the game go\u2019 verdict<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Naomi Osaka\u2019s former coach Brad Gilbert has become the latest voice to criticise the Japanese player after she did not mention Victoria Mboko in her loser\u2019s speech. Osaka said just 45 words, none of which were \u2018Victoria Mboko\u2019, in her post-match speech after she lost 6-2, 4-6, 1-6 in the Canadian Open final. Failure to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}