tennis great billie jean king has praised naomi osaka for speaking out on mental health issues and her stand against racial injusticejapans osaka withdrew from this years french open after being fined and threatened with expulsion for refusing to do media duties which she said had contributed to the depression issues she had struggled with for yearsthe 23yearold a fourtime grand slam champion also pulled out of wimbledon leading to a broader conversation about mental health in sportosaka was joined by king mercurial australian nick kyrgios and former american player mardy fish for a discussion hosted by racquet magazine on the eve of the us openeveryone loves you guys they listen to you guys and i think its great when you talk and talk about your feelings kids need that king a leading figure in the campaign for gender equality in tennis told osakawhen i was outed in 81 for being gay i lost everything in 24 hours you guys can talk about these things and youre celebrated other people have the same issues but we couldnt talk about it the way you get toevery time i go to any place now i have to talk about mental health why because you guys talked about it thats fantastic progressthe 77yearold has in the past likened osakas offcourt stance to that of the original nine a group of players led by king who fought tirelessly to start a professional womens tennis tour which led to the creation of the wta in 1973osaka was lauded for supporting the black lives matter campaign as she highlighted racial injustice by wearing different face masks at her 2020 us open matches bearing the names of african americans who died in recent yearsafter my first slam i was supposed to be the good girl osaka said but now that im talking about stuff that bothers me i think its confusing a lot of people i honestly dont know what people think about mein a social media post on sunday osaka said she intends to celebrate her own achievements more and will not worry about the expectations others place on her as she prepares to begin her us open title defencekyrgios who has been punished by authorities for his oncourt behaviour said he did not feel the media cared about players wellbeingbut king who won 12 grand slam singles titles said the sports financial strength would not have been possible without the support of the pressin our generation we played for 14 a day and we played for more than ourselves she saidwe only had the traditional media so if we dont get them to tell our story then we wouldnt have what we have today