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Naomi Osaka briefed reporters amid tears that she'll likely be taking a break after her third round loss at the US Open. Not so long ago was she the golden girl of the Tennis World, with many tipping her as a successor to Serena Williams.

While she is still young and can make a U-turn, there is of course cause to pause and reflect. Since Winning the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, She has been embroiled in controversy with the media over her inability to cope with press conferences, which she sites mental health struggles.

All the attention has affected her career since then, which has been marred by withdrawals from Wimbledon and the French Open as well as early exits at the The Tokyo Olympics (on home soil) and the U.S Open.

There is no doubt that the cause of her decline is mental, as her skillset and fitness levels have largely remained the same. Naomi receives a ton of attention from the media outside the Tennis courts, and is one of the sports most marketable Athletes.

Sometimes, Athletes are able to come to terms with the pressures on ground to remain at the top. There is of course the case of remaining relevant, keeping form to protect endorsements, media prying into private lives of athletes and so on. When you add personal challenges athletes may face, it is perhaps understandable why some may capitulate under the pressure.

When Athletes over burden themselves, a decline is inevitable. Competitors are constantly waiting for their opportunity to displace those hanging to top positions, and will take advantage of any slight weaknesses in the opponents game.

Take Serena Williams for instance, who is one win away form equaling Margaret Courts all time record of 24 grand slams. Despite getting to at least three Grand Slam finals since then, she has faltered even when heavily favored for victory.

The pressure top athletes face is mostly self created, but it can potentially bring an end to an athletes career.

Media

Another avenue for the potential decline of an athlete is the media. Top Athletes are of course superstars for the most part and literally their every move is being scrutinized by the media. It can be quite terrible if the athlete is a private person and wants to stay off media attention for as much as possible.

Then comes the monster that is social media. Take for instance the amount of criticism the U.S Men's basketball team took following respective exhibition game defeats in the build up to the Olympics, as well as the Olympics first game against France. The organized media was already against them, but when individuals started to hurl insults and derogatory remarks at the team, it became personal for some players.

What could be even more annoying is that athletes are expected to be 'used' to these kind of criticisms and lack of privacy as if they were normal.

Conclusion

Perhaps while goals and ambitions are important, top competitive athletes must learn to ease off when necessary and abandon things that put sustained pressure on them if need be. In the end, they must separate their careers as individual entities in other to thrive.

What do you think about my hypothesis?