American tennis duo Naomi Osaka and Taylor Townsend have responded to criticism on social media after they hosted a dinner solely for black players before the French Open started.
Besides Osaka and Townsend, the other attendees of the dinner were 2025 French Open champion Coco Gauff, retiring Frenchman Gael Monfils, doubles specialist Asia Muhammad and retired player turned TV commentator Chris Eubanks.
‘It caused a bit of a stir, which I thought was pretty funny because for so long we have been the ones that (are) the minority in a sport where we kind of stick out,’ Townsend said about chatter on social media. ‘And now coming together all of a sudden seems like a problem.’
While Townsend said the reaction from her Instagram post about the evening was ‘mostly positive,’ she said there was also online criticism.
Several comments on Osaka’s and Townsend’s posts suggested the dinner was ‘segregation,’ while another asked, ‘When are the white, Latino, and Asian parties?’
It all prompted Townsend to quote a lyric from the rapper Finesse2tymes: ‘He said, “It’s cool when they do it; it’s a problem when I do it.”‘
Keeping in the rap theme, Townsend quoted Tupac Shakur in her post about the evening: ‘Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice; I say the darker the flesh, then the deeper the roots.’
‘Growing up, there weren’t a lot of tennis players I could look up to that looked like me,’ Osaka – whose father is from Haiti and mother is from Japan – said in her Instagram post about the dinner.
‘Being a minority in a sport like tennis is very isolating but the positive is that you keep tabs on everyone that… being blunt, is black. There’s a fellowship, a camaraderie.’
‘I felt like everyone in that room was a part of my family,’ Osaka – who represents Japan but grew up mostly in the U.S. – added in a news conference.
For Townsend, ‘it wasn’t just about the culture, it was healing for us to all be able to speak about our journeys.’
While Gauff’s title defense ended with a loss to Anastasia Potapova on Saturday, Osaka has reached the fourth round in Paris for the first time in her career while showing off her taste for fashion with her elaborate walk-on outfits.
American player Townsend and Czech partner Katerina Siniakova – the top-seeded doubles team – have won their opening three matches and are into the quarterfinals.
Osaka has continued to defy her critics who claim she is turning the French Open into a ‘fashion show’ as she strode on court with a coffee train attached to her glittering ‘Eiffel Tower’ dress and sporting a new warm-up jacket.
American tennis duo Naomi Osaka and Taylor Townsend held a dinner solely for black players
Townsend said ‘it wasn’t just about the culture, it was healing for us to all be able to speak about our journeys’
The other attendees included Coco Gauff, Gael Monfils, Asia Muhammad and Chris Eubanks
The Japanese star was accused of not coming to Roland Garros ‘to play tennis’ by her first-round opponent Laura Siegemund after arriving for her opening match in a flowing black skirt and corset made from her old Nike match outfits before unveiling a shimmering gold dress, which Osaka said she thought looked like the famous French monument at night.
Osaka earns £7.5million a year in her deal with Nike and earlier this week posed for night-time pictures in front of the glittering Eiffel Tower.
‘I came here to play tennis, not to put on a fashion show,’ Siegemund had told TNT Sports. ‘And if others want to put on a fashion show, then they should go ahead and do it. That’s totally fine with me.’
For her third-round clash against Iva Jovic, Osaka walked out on Court Suzanne Lenglen with a flowing coffee train, a darker shade to the one she wore against Donna Vekic in the second round and a different warm-up jacket, this time in a more synched, peplum style.
’Shining, as always,’ posted the official Roland Garros account on X, with a video of Osaka striding on to court.
While her first-round opponent took issue with her outfit, Vekic had no complaints after her defeat.
‘Some people take tennis way too seriously. Relax, it’s just an outfit. Ithink it’s good that she’s doing different things, expressing herself through fashion. Whether it’s good or bad, that’s a different thing, it’s fashion.’
