Who among the following has withdrawn from the French Open Tennis Tournament, 2021 in second round after controversy over media obligations?

Correct — D, Naomi Osaka. Before the 2021 French Open began, Osaka said she would not take part in post-match press conferences, arguing that the format could damage a player's mental health. She won her opening match, was fined by the tournament and warned of further sanction by the four Grand Slam bodies, and then withdrew rather than continue the dispute, disclosing at the same time that she had lived with depression since 2018. Her withdrawal came ahead of her second-round match, which is how the paper's phrasing should be read.

• (a)Coco Gauff — Gauff played the tournament through and reached the quarter-finals in 2021. She was not part of the press-conference dispute.
• (b)Serena Williams — Williams competed and went out in the fourth round that year. She commented publicly on the episode but did not withdraw.
• (c)Ana Bogdan — A Romanian player on the tour with no involvement in the media-obligations controversy; she is offered here only to fill the option set.

Grand Slam rules require players to attend press conferences, with fines for refusal, on the reasoning that media access is part of what makes the tournaments commercially viable. The 2021 episode set that obligation against a player's account of what it cost her, and it was the first time the question had been forced at that level by the world's highest-earning woman athlete.

The item is answerable from the phrase 'media obligations' alone, which points at one well-reported episode. The 2021 women's singles title, incidentally, went to Barbora Krejcikova, who was unseeded. Since the exam the argument has not gone away, but the tours have added mental-health support and Osaka herself returned to competition after a break, so the episode reads now as the start of a change rather than an isolated refusal.

• The 2021 French Open ran from late May into June at Roland Garros in Paris.
• Osaka was fined by the tournament after skipping her first-round press conference and withdrew before her second-round match.
• She said publicly that she had experienced long bouts of depression since the 2018 US Open.
• Barbora Krejcikova won the 2021 women's singles title.
• The French Open is the only Grand Slam played on clay.

• Picking the most famous name in the option set rather than the one attached to the episode.
• Reading the stem as though she lost in the second round; she withdrew before playing it.

A sports current-affairs item keyed to one phrase in the stem.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The French Open is played on which surface?

  • (a)Grass
  • (b)Clay
  • (c)Hard court
  • (d)Carpet

  Answer(b) Clay — Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam played on clay.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who won the women's singles title at the 2021 French Open?

  • (a)Barbora Krejcikova
  • (b)Iga Swiatek
  • (c)Ashleigh Barty
  • (d)Simona Halep

  Answer(a) Barbora Krejcikova — she took the title unseeded.