{"id":62070,"date":"2020-08-27T15:03:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=62070"},"modified":"2020-08-27T15:03:48","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:03:48","slug":"naomi-osaka-withdraws-from-wta-semi-final-over-blake-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=62070","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka withdraws from WTA semi-final over Blake shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Sports Desk: Japan's Naomi Osaka withdrew from her WTA Western & Southern Open semi-final match Thursday in New York to protest the police shooting of an unarmed black man in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

Osaka, a two-time Grand Slam champion, was to have faced Belgian Elise Mertens in the same quarantine bubble where the US Open will be played starting Monday.<\/p>\n

“Before I am an athlete, I am a black woman. And as a black woman I feel as though there are much more important matters at hand that need immediate attention, rather than watching me play tennis,” Osaka posted in a statement on Twitter.<\/p>\n

“I don't expect anything drastic to happen with me not playing, but if I can get a conversation started in a majority white sport I consider that a step in the right direction.”<\/p>\n

Her move comes in the wake of African-American Jacob Blake being shot on Sunday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks boycotting their scheduled playoff game Wednesday.<\/p>\n

All NBA playoff games Wednesday were eventually postponed and Major League Baseball and Women's NBA clubs followed suit before Osaka became the trailblazer in tennis.<\/p>\n

“Watching the continued genocide of Black people at the hand of the police is honestly making me sick to my stomach,” Osaka said.<\/p>\n

“I'm exhausted of having a new hashtag pop up every few days and I'm extremely tired of having this same conversation over and over again.<\/p>\n

“When will it ever be enough?”<\/p>\n

Blake was shot seven times in the back by police as he attempted to get into a car containing his three children.<\/p>\n

Protests have erupted in Kenosha since the shooting, with two people killed after a man opened fire on demonstrators with an assault rifle on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Issues of police violence and systemic racism were raised in May by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer held his knee upon Floyd's neck for more than eight minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sports Desk: Japan’s Naomi Osaka withdrew from her WTA Western & Southern Open semi-final match Thursday in New York to protest the police shooting of an unarmed black man in Wisconsin. Osaka, a two-time Grand Slam champion, was to have faced Belgian Elise Mertens in the same quarantine bubble where the US Open will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n