Naomi Osaka is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association. Have a look.
Naomi Osaka : Injury | Retired | coco gauff | news
Born in Japan to a Haitian-American father and a Japanese mother, Osaka has lived and trained in the United States since age three.
She came to prominence at age 16 when she defeated former US Open champion Samantha Stosur in her WTA Tour debut at the 2014 Stanford Classic.
Born | October 16, 1997 Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan |
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Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
Turned pro | September 2013 |
Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Coach | Wim Fissette (2020–2022) |
Two years later, she reached her first WTA final at the 2016 Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo to enter the top 50 of the WTA rankings.
Osaka made her breakthrough into the upper echelon of women’s tennis in 2018 when she won her first WTA title at the Indian Wells Open.
Later in the year, she defeated 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams in the final of the US Open to become the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title. Since 2018, Osaka has won a Grand Slam singles title in four consecutive years.
In mid-2021, suffering from depression and other issues, Osaka retired from the French Open, dropped out of Wimbledon, and lost early at the US Open. She closed down the rest of her tennis season to focus on family and health.
Naomi Osaka Injury
Osaka called for a medical timeout down 4-3 and a break in the first set. She rallied back to earn a tiebreaker but fell to Kanepi, who will now face Garbine Muguruza in the second round.
Osaka has suffered numerous injuries in 2022 that have forced her off the court.
An abdominal injury led to a withdrawal from the Melbourne Summer Set.
She also withdrew from the Italian Open after suffering a left Achilles injury during a first-round win at the Madrid Open two weeks earlier.
Osaka ended up playing through the injury at the French Open but lost in the first round. She announced in June that her Achilles wasn’t in good enough shape for her to play in Wimbledon.
Osaka is a two-time Australian Open champion and two-time U.S. Open winner who served 25 weeks as the World No. 1 in 2019. She finished third in the year-end WTA rankings in 2018 and 2019. Osaka won at Indian Wells in 2018 and the China Open in 2019.
Naomi Osaka Retired
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka retired from her opening match on Tuesday at the WTA Toronto Masters with lower back pain, raising injury concerns with the US Open looming. Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi advanced when Osaka retired trailing 7-6 (7/4), 3-0.
Kanepi, a runner-up last week in Washington, needed 71 minutes on court as she broke three times before the Japanese star called it quits. Defeat drove the emotional Osaka to tears.
“I felt my back from the start of the match and despite trying to push through it, I just wasn’t able to today,” Osaka said.
“I’d like to pay credit to Kaia for playing well and want to wish her all the best for the rest of the tournament.”
Osaka has played only six matches with a 2-4 record since losing the Miami final in early April to world number one Iga Swiatek.
Kanepi, 37, won their only prior meeting five years ago in three sets at the US Open.
“I tried to play my game and stay aggressive. It was a very tight match,” Kanepi said. “I felt I needed a little more time to get used to new things, but after that I felt comfortable.”
Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff held off four-time major champion Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday night to advance to the quarterfinals at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.
Gauff, the No. 6 seed, held all of her serves in the opening set and finished the 45-minute session with three aces.
https://youtu.be/9ieEIn8PpLA
Osaka had the first double-fault of the match early in the second set and Gauff took advantage for a 2-1 lead.
Gauff quickly built a double-break lead at 5-1 and led 40-0 before Osaka saved four match points and used her first ace to make it 5-2.
Osaka then broke Gauff for the first time in the match and overcame another 40-0 deficit with five straight points for 5-4. But Gauff closed it out on her eighth match point with an unreturnable serve.
“The most proud was how I responded mentally,” Gauff said. “I could have easily folded in those couple of double-faults and match points that I lost.
But I kept telling myself ‘Another point, another chance’ and then the music kind of helped on the bench. I was trying to sing along to the song to get me out of the match.”
News
Tennis superstar Naomi Osaka has had another emotional exit from a tournament as she retired from her first-round match at the Canadian Open due to a back injury, raising concerns about her form heading towards the US Open.
The four-time Grand Slam champion was playing Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi and was trailing 7-6, 3-0 before she pulled the plug and was reduced to tears before leaving the court.
Afterwards Osaka commented on Twitter: ‘Today is just really not a good day…’
Tennis fans took to social media to voice their concern after witnessing her teary display and offer her their best wishes.
‘This Naomi Osaka decline is sad to watch,’ commented one Twitter user.
Another was more supportive, posting: ‘Keep your head up, Tomorrow will be better.’