As cool as it was to see little Leylah Fernandez take out Noami Osaka at the US Open last night, I feel terrible for Noami.  The poor woman is in JAIL.

After dropping the first set, Leylah roared from match point in the second to beat Noami to advance to the fourth round of the US Open and Noami clearly has bigger things to worry about than tennis.

Naomi’s mental health is dwarfing Leylah’s career win and it’s a shame but I get it.

mood in Ashe: pic.twitter.com/9zizx6VMYF

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 4, 2021

Leylah Fernandez, folks!@leylahfernandez | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/IVjxcZj3Kh

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 4, 2021

Obviously, something’s been going on with Noami and as much as she’s trying to figure it out, he brain is lying to her and she’s confused.  When she says she’s not happy when she wins and she’s depressed when she loses can only one thing: Noami’s mental distress is creating some serious confusion.

I’m fortunate to have been where Naomi’s at.  It’s hard to describe.  You feel like you can’t get the words out and there’s huge fear in talking to anyone for fear they might see that you’re ‘not ok’.  Criticism from others and failure, no matter how small, become major triggers because we’re in “fight or flight” mode 100 percent of the time.  You feel uncomfortable from the minute you wake up until bedtime.  You’re constantly in this mode of paranoia and fear and your perspective is garbage.

Steak tastes like craft dinner and fun times look like work and work is death in the mind of someone who’s afraid of everything.

Noami’s mental health is just as important to protect as yours or mine.  Everything I heard her say in that clip made sense to me and that’s why this is important to me.

Naomi has everything she needs to leave the game and live an incredibly happy life.  I hope she runs in to help and looks for answers from people who have them.  I hope if you see yourself in Naomi’s comments you do the same.

And congrats to Leylah.  Canada is running a train at the U.S. Open with Bianca, Dennis, and Felix into the fourth round.  And taking out the number 3 player in the world deserves some serious credit.

DB