Overview
- Naomi Osaka and Taylor Townsend co‑hosted a private dinner at Soho House in Paris for Black professional tennis players, with attendees including Coco Gauff, Gaël Monfils, Asia Muhammad and Christopher Eubanks.
- Photos and posts from the event circulated on social media and prompted online criticism that the gathering was exclusionary.
- Osaka posted a public response defending the event, saying she rarely saw people who looked like her while growing up in tennis and recounting incidents in which police were called on her father.
- Hosts documented the night with professional photographers and social‑media coordinators, and one report called the gathering the “Black Party (Roland Garros ‘RG’ Edition).”
- The episode has renewed public debate about race‑focused gatherings in a sport that remains largely white at the top and continues a pattern of Osaka using her platform to highlight representation and racial‑justice issues.