"I feel sorry for her but we need to be ready for adversities" - says Nadal on Osaka heckling

Rafael Nadal is the latest player to have his say on heckling at tennis matches after Naomi Osaka was reduced to tears with both admitting that it is sadly part and parcel of sport.

Osaka made a second-round exit from the BNP Paribas Open over the weekend, but she was seen wiping away tears after a spectator shouted “Naomi, you suck!” during the early stages of her match against Veronika Kudermetova. The Japanese star complained to the umpire and after the defeat she admitted that it reminded her of 2001 when Venus and Serena Williams were booed at the Indian Wells tournament.

Asked about it, Nadal said:

“These kind of questions are tough to answer because in some way, I mean, the easy answer for me is I feel terrible about what happened, that never should happen. The real thing, in the real world, that happens, you know? I feel very sorry for her. We are having, in my opinion, a great life. We are very lucky people that we’re able to enjoy amazing experiences because of our life, because we are tennis players. We make money."

He further said:

"Even if is terrible to hear from that, we need to be prepared for that. We need to resist these kind of issues that can happen when you are exposed to the people. At the same time, as we like a lot when the people are supporting, when something like this happens, we need to accept and move forward."

And finished off with:

“I understand that probably Naomi, she suffered a lot with his probably kind of issues that she has, mental issues. The only thing that I wish her is recover well from that and wish her all the very best. But the life, nothing is perfect in this life. We need to be ready for adversities.”