Tennis star Naomi Osaka, whose declaration last week that she would skip news conferences at the French Open in order to protect her mental health stirred impassioned debates over whether athletes’ customary post-competition media obligations harmed their emotional well-being, said Monday she would withdraw from the prestigious tournament in Paris.

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam singles champion who represents Japan and lives in Los Angeles, also said in a statement on Twitter and Instagram that she had been suffering long bouts of depression since she won the U.S. Open in 2018 “and I have had a really hard time coping with that.” She expressed surprise that her decision to avoid news conferences had become a major topic of discussion and added, “I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can go back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris.”

Officials of tennis’ four Grand Slam tournaments — the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open — had issued a statement that posed the possibility she would be fined in increasing amounts or defaulted from tournaments if she continued to defy regulations that require players to appear at post-match news conferences. She was fined $15,000 for skipping a news conference after her first-round victory over Patricia Maria Tig on Sunday, though she did a brief on-court TV interview afterward.