Ryo Ishikawa said Naomi Osaka had suffered a "tough time" and that he understood her decision to skip news conferences at tennis's French Open.
Osaka withdrew from the French Open last month before the second round in the wake of controversy caused by her decision to skip some of her mandatory post-match media commitments.
She revealed she had been suffering bouts of anxiety and depression since bursting into the limelight by winning the U.S. Open in 2018, the first of her four Grand Slam titles.