Naomi Osaka does not hold back in her answer.
There has been a common debate among tennis fans who fight their way through sets at their local rec leagues about whether they could win against a professional player. It is a fun thought of which there will rarely be an answer to. While we swing away against a Mark or Bob, professionals are playing against guys named Novak and ladies named Iga. It’s a different world.
And yet because there is no way of truly knowing if we would win, we can keep clinging to hopes that we could. But let’s be real. There are lots of reasons why 99 percent of us could not even get a point off of a professional and one main reason is that they are very good at what they do and we make our livings doing something other than playing a sport.
OK, to be fair, there is a chance many of us could get a point off a professional tennis player. That is because that player could always double-fault while playing us. so, yay! One point for us.
Naomi Osaka pushes the “stop” button on a silly thought
But professionals, such as Naomi Osaka, aren’t just born to play at a higher level than most of us due to their natural gift of athleticism and hand-to-eye coordination, but they also spend many of their waking moments working to improve their craft. Even if we were born with the same athletic ability, they simply spend lots more hours trying to get better and we don’t.
But the thought of winning a match against a professional player is ridiculous. But how about one single game? Osaka was asked about this in a quick question-and-answer at the Miami Open. Her response was perfect.
The exact question posed to her was, “71 percent of fans think they can take a game off a professional player. Is this delusional or accurate?”
Naomi Osaka response was, “Disrespectful.”
And she is 100 percent correct. A regular person thinking they can win a game against a professional player who works endlessly to get better is disrespectful because it does away with the thought of how diligent someone is in improving their craft. This is like someone saying they can build a shed as well as some master craftsman who builds houses for a living.
Still, the thought of winning a game against a pro is fun. But one should not confuse that with reality.
