Kim Clijsters compares Carlos Alcaraz's openness after Indian Wells loss to Naomi Osaka's brave mental health admission

Kim Clijsters drew parallels between Carlos Alcaraz's honest admission about not feeling mentally up to the mark during his Indian Wells loss and Naomi Osaka's confession regarding her mental health. Alcaraz lost to Jack Draper in the semifinal of the BNP Paribas Open and did not refrain from opening up about his struggles with his mentality.

Alcaraz suffered a 1-6, 6-0, 4-6 loss to eventual champion Draper in the semifinal of the Masters 1000 event at Indian Wells. During his post-match press conference, the Spaniard admitted being "nervous" and more "worried" about the Brit's game rather than focusing on his own.

"I didn't practice well. I didn't feel myself well on court. I was nervous during the whole day in the practice, before the match," he said.

The 21-year-old's comments were a talking point for Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters in an episode of the Served podcast, hosted by the former ATP star. The 2003 US Open champion questioned if Alcaraz admitting something like this publicly was a good decision.

Meanwhile, Clijsters compared to Japanese star Osaka openly talking about her struggles with mental health.

"I felt like that a little bit for a while, like even on the women's side, where Naomi Osaka came out and started talking about some of her mental issues. And, you know, to a certain degree, it's great to share your feelings and your thoughts with fans," Kim Clijsters said (32:20 onwards).

However, she claimed that such an admission draws a lot of attention to the person.

"But there's also a lot of—you draw a lot more attention to it and negative energy to it. And all the media wants to know more about it because you open a door to things," she added.

In 2021, Osaka withdrew from the French Open citing mental health struggles. She received support and also backlash for her decision for the betterment of her health she took a hiatus and later returned to the sport.

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Kim Clijsters reveals that she used to talk to her coach instead of making public admissions about mental health like Noami Osaka & Carlos Alcaraz

Naomi Osaka at the BNP Paribas Open - Source: Getty

Continuing the conversation on the Served podcast, Kim Clijsters claimed that in her time as a player, she used to talk to her coach about not feeling well mentally instead of how publicly Naomi Osaka and Carlos Alcaraz made admissions.

"I feel like in our time, you know, I would just talk to my coach about, "Oh, I'm not feeling this, I'm not feeling good about this," but we never really openly communicated about, "Oh, I'm playing with so much doubt out there, and, "I'm not feeling..." We never really did that," Kim Clijsters further mentioned (32:55 onwards).

Andy Roddick agreed to Clijsters' statement and claimed that he used to lie to his team, instead.

Coming to on-court matters, Naomi Osaka and Carlos Alcaraz are in Florida for the Miami Open. The Japanese star will play against Yuliia Starodubtseva in the first round of the event while second seed Alcaraz is receiving a bye in the first round.