“I’m hoping the lack of dialogue and the fine will bring the parties together. There has to be discourse about this,” McNamee told theHerald.
“It’s not a healthy situation or a good look for Naomi or the sport. It needs to be dealt with face to face. I don’t think fining someone $15,000 continuously is the way to go. I would think this is a circuit breaker.”
If Osaka does progress into the second week of the slam on her least favourite surface,McNamee urged tournament organisers to rule out disqualifying the world No. 2.
“That would be completely disproportionate and I don’t think that’s on the radar at all,” he said.
“The problem is that we can only believe what we’ve seen. For the grand slam board to make the statement they made – and they said in the statement they tried to speak to Naomi directly before action was taken – has left them in a very difficult position. They wanted to hear her side of the story and verify if she was struggling. In which case,that would be a matter of discussion.
“But they’re reading it on social media. That’s not easy to deal with. I can only take it on good faith that there was no conversation with Naomi or her management. That left them in a difficult position where they needed to impose a fine. That’s not unreasonable.”
Tennis Australia president Jayne Hrdlicka was one of the signatures on the statement threatening further punishment,but neither Hrdlicka or TA chief executive Craig Tilley wished to comment any further.
While debate about Osaka continued,the only Australian in action was Ajla Tomljanovic,and the world No. 76 cruised to a comfortable 6-2,6-4 win against Kateryna Kozlova in just under two hours on court.
The primary on-court story after the opening day’s play was about Thiem.
Having fallen to 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal in the final at Roland Garros in 2018 and 2019,Thiem was afforded a favourable draw at this year’s tournament.
He was the only player to have won a grand slam in his half of the draw.
But after establishing a two-set lead against Spaniard Pablo Andujar,Thiem produced four consecutive unforced errors on serve halfway through the third set and was broken to love.
He dropped the third set and never recovered. The shocking 6-4,7-5,3-6,4-6,4-6 loss was his first to a player outside the top 30 at Roland Garros and the first time he had fallen short of the quarter-finals in six years.
“I was not struggling at all with my motivation,but the game was just not there today,” Thiem said post match.
“All the shots are missing power. They are not accurate enough. I’m not moving well enough,so everything in my game has some per cents missing.
“I don’t really know why,because since I stepped back on court it’s already been two months,and I was really practising well,super intense as well.”
Andujar was more impressed with his recent win against Roger Federer at the Geneva Open.
“For me,he is like a myth,” the Spaniard said of Thiem.
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Thiem’s loss leaves the bottom half of the men’s draw wide open,but he wasn’t the only star to fall on day one.
Grigor Dimitrov was forced to retire due to a back injury in the fourth set of his first-round clash with American Marcos Giron.
Former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber also continued her rapid decline.
The 2016 Australian Open winner fell in the first round at Melbourne Park this year and failed to fire a shot at Roland Garros.
The 6-2,6-4 defeat to Ukrainian qualifier Anhelina Kalinina leaves the German’s career at a crossroads.
On the Australian front,John Millman,Jordan Thompson and Chris O’Connell will all begin their tournaments on Monday night.
Ash Barty,Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin will have to until Tuesday night to begin their campaigns.
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