Naomi Osaka clapped back at the suggestion that American tennis fans could win a game against professional players.
Pros dedicate their livelihood to nurturing their craft and honing their skills. Most tennis players, like any other professional sport, begin practicing and playing at a very young age.
It is unheard of for aspiring tennis players to start their careers in their late teenage years or in their 20s, although there have been a few examples of players who arrived late on the scene and flourished.
But all the greatest or even the average tennis pros will always tell the story of wielding a racket between the ages of four and 10. Then some play it recreationally, either at club level or in their basement at home.
These are amateurs at best and only accumulate less than double-digit hours of mileage on the court in a week, although they watch and follow the tour from the comfort of their televisions.
The surprising part is that amateurs believe they have a chance of winning a game against a professional player. In a survey conducted in the United States last year, 71% of the fans stated they could win a game against a pro playing on the ATP or WTA tour.
Last year, Andy Roddick was shocked to learn of this survey and called it “insane”. Roddick sarcastically joked that he would have won Wimbledon a minimum of 17 times if he played an amateur.
Former WTA World No. 9 Andrea Petkovic shared Roddick’s sentiment at the time, stating that she plays with amateurs occasionally now that she is retired, and they hardly even win points, let alone games. Eugenie Bouchard’s immediate reaction was to brand those fans as “delusional“.
And now four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka has hit back at the aforementioned 71% of fans. In a Q&A session on the Broadcast Boys official Instagram page, the Japanese star called it “disrespectful” that such fans feel they stand a chance to win a game.
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