Women’s tennis stars Naomi Osaka and Taylor Townsend co-hosted a dinner party for black professional tennis players during the French Open, with Osaka claiming that being a minority in the sport can be “isolating.”
Osaka, ranked World No. 16 in women’s singles by the Women’s Tennis Association, and Townsend, ranked World No. 72 in singles and No. 2 in doubles, posted photos of the dinner on their respective Instagram accounts.
“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,” Osaka wrote. “Our presence is a present and I’m so grateful for the gift of my peers.”
Townsend shared the Tupac Shakur quote, “Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.
I say the darker the flesh, then the deeper the roots,” on her Instagram post.
Attendees at the dinner included women’s World No. 4 Coco Gauff, professional doubles player Asia Muhammad, and former professional tennis player Christopher Eubanks. (RELATED: Superstar Tennis Player Coco Gauff Smashes Racket After Blowout Loss, Blames Media For Capturing Her Private Moment)
In response to backlash, Osaka claimed there are “already dinners or events reserved for white people.”
“To those asking, I also want to ask: what makes you uncomfortable about racialized people coming together?” Osaka asked. “I grew up watching my father face discrimination, including having the police called on him multiple times on tennis courts.”
“There are many things I will apologize for in my life, but not for celebrating being Black and being proud of who we are,” she added. (RELATED: Liberal Reporter Fails Miserably At Another Attempt Of Ruining Australian Open With Anti-American Questioning)
The dinner was hosted at Soho House, a members-only club with a number of locations around the world, including in Paris, where the French Open is being held. Osaka and Townsend had social media coordinators and professional photographers on hand for the event, according to Townsend’s Instagram.
Townsend and Gauff will face off in the first round of the French Open while Osaka will battle German player Laura Siegemund. Both matches are scheduled to take place Tuesday.
Gauff, when asked about the political climate in the U.S. during the Australian Open in January, told the press, “I think being a black woman in this country and having to experience things even online and seeing your marginalized communities being affected, and knowing that I can only really donate and speak out, and I try my best to do that.”