Naomi Osaka Calls Jelena Ostapenko’s Comments to Taylor Townsend ‘One of the Worst Things You Can Say to a Black Tennis Player’

The broader takeaway: words have weight, and gravity varies by history. Aim your critiques at decisions, not identities, and the sport gets tougher and kinder at once.

That isn’t censorship; it’s craft. Precision with language is as much a high-performance skill as footwork or timing.