PARIS — PARIS (AP) — Naomi Osaka and Taylor Townsend are piling up wins on the court at the French Open.Their success comes after drawing attention off the court for organizing a dinner for Black players before the tournament started.“It caused a bit of a stir, which I thought was pretty funny because for so long we have been the ones that (are) the minority in a sport where we kind of stick out,” Townsend said about chatter on social media. “And now coming together all of a sudden seems like a problem.”While Townsend said the reaction from her Instagram post about the evening was “mostly positive,” she said there was also online criticism.Several comments on Osaka’s and Townsend’s posts suggested the dinner as “segregation,” while another asked, “When are the white, Latino, and Asian parties?”It all prompted Townsend to quote a lyric from the rapper Finesse2tymes: “He said, ‘It’s cool when they do it; it’s a problem when I do it.’”Keeping in the rap theme, Townsend quoted Tupac Shakur in her post about the evening: “Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice; I say the darker the flesh, then the deeper the roots.”Besides Osaka and Townsend, the other attendees of the dinner were 2025 French Open champion Coco Gauff, retiring Frenchman Gael Monfils, doubles specialist Asia Muhammad and retired player turned TV commentator Chris Eubanks.“Growing up, there weren’t a lot of tennis players I could look up to that looked like me,” Osaka — whose father is from Haiti and mother is from Japan — said in her Instagram post about the dinner. “Being a minority in a sport like tennis is very isolating but the positive is that you keep tabs on everyone that … being blunt, is black. There’s a fellowship, a camaraderie.”“I felt like everyone in that room was a part of my family,” Osaka — who represents Japan but grew up mostly in the U.S. — added in a news conference.For Townsend, “it wasn’t just about the culture, it was healing for us to all be able to speak about our journeys.”While Gauff’s title defense ended with a loss to Anastasia Potapova on Saturday, Osaka has reached the fourth round in Paris for the first time in her career while showing off her taste for fashion with her elaborate walk-on outfits. American player Townsend and Czech partner Katerina Siniakova — the top-seeded doubles team — have won their opening three matches and are into the quarterfinals.Gauff beat Townsend in the opening round of singles, after w …
