As sports journalists, it's not uncommon for our inboxes to be bombarded with mind-numbing sales pitches from public relations companies working on behalf of big-name brands.
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These emails are usually swiftly deleted before even being opened as a matter of course, but very occasionally one of these tends to pique our interest.
I refer to an email which came through earlier this week announcing that women's tennis star Naomi Osaka had signed a, no doubt, financially lucrative deal with a major electronics company. The announcement comes just weeks after she announced she was stepping away from tennis to take some 'personal time'.
It's been a big week for Osaka, who took another moment away from her personal time a few days ago to tweet about a recent photo shoot which landed her on a magazine cover in Japan.
For all of these recent forays back into the public spotlight which she declared some weeks ago was taking a significant toll on her mental health, Osaka will still not feature in the Wimbledon draw next week.
Now please let me clarify a few things. Osaka is a brilliant tennis player, and has one of the most genuine personalities in the sporting world.
And when she says she has suffered from depression since her 2018 US Open win, we must believe her. (I can't help but wonder if things might have been different had Serena Williams not behaved so appallingly in defeat after the final).
Mental illness in athletes, even those who earn tens of millions of dollars per year through endorsements, is real and should be respected.
But it's understandable that a sour taste is left in the mouth when someone of Osaka's standing decides that fronting a mandatory post-match press conference is no longer something she wishes to do.
Especially when it leads to her pulling out entirely of two Grand Slam tournaments (we're still hopeful she plays at the Tokyo Olympics next month in her home country).
Is doing a press conference really such a price to pay?
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Granted, she has to wade through the sludge of often moronic questions that come her way from a certain breed of reporters who are looking for nothing more than a broadcast worthy grab.
But this is also a platform she can use to "look beyond tennis to share her views on what a better society would look like in her own words", as the electronics company said in its release this week when explaining why they were so keen to partner with Osaka.
The press release went on to say the company's founder "held the notion that a stable state of happiness comes only when both mental stability and material prosperity are secured".
As one of the world's most marketable athletes, Osaka has already secured her material prosperity, seemingly at the expense of her battle with depression.
For the majority of mental health sufferers, they can't say the same.
They can't afford to just take some 'personal time' and hope it will all go away, because they aren't capable of earning seven-figure sums of prizemoney over a fortnight, or securing lucrative sponsorship deals.
This is where a severe disconnect develops between professional athlete and adoring public, and quite often the press conference is the only conduit between the two.
And here is the point. Were it not for the media, there would be no global sporting superstars.
We know of Osaka and her exploits, because they are beamed into our loungerooms thanks to television broadcast deals that often cost billions of dollars. Because we read about her talents in the newspaper, and because we hear of her success on the wireless. Athletes can leverage their profiles created by real media to create a global presence on social media.
With no media, there are no broadcast dollars, much fewer sponsorship endorsements and a significant reduction in prizemoney. You can't have it both ways.
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