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Naomi Osaka’s fitness for the Australian Open has been questioned after the four-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 suffered an abdominal injury during the final of a WTA tournament in Auckland on Sunday.
Osaka Denmark’s Klara Towson won the first set of the final 6-4 when she spoke to her coach Patrick Muratoglu along with the chair umpire and a tour coach before deciding to withdraw.
The nature of his injury was not immediately clear but appeared to be abdominal, not the back injury he suffered at the China Open in October and which ended his 2024 season.
Osaka broke down in tears as she sat waiting for the instructor. He then left the court with a subdued decorum as a spectator before returning to present the award.
“I just want to thank everyone for welcoming me to such a beautiful city,” Osaka said. “I had a lot of fun playing here and I’m really sorry for how it ended but I hope you enjoyed the tennis you played. I’m really grateful to be here.”
Osaka was leading 5-1 with two breaks of serve as she began to look tougher, with less power on her serve. He managed to take the first set before indicating he could not continue.
Osaka returned to tennis in early 2024 after a long break following the birth of her daughter Shai.
The Auckland final was her first since returning to tennis and if she wins it will be her first title since the 2021 Australian Open.
Osaka’s injury comes after a good week in Auckland. As the tournament unfolded, she continued to grow stronger, with the four-time Grand Slam winner and former No. 1 talking about how childbirth and her absence from the tour had changed her outlook and hardened her mindset.
“There are moments where it’s really hard, where I get down on myself,” Osaka said earlier this week. “But then I realized I was pregnant so long ago and I really wanted a chance to play again.
“Now I’m finally here and I’m fighting really well and I hope I can continue like this.”
Osaka was seeded seventh in her entry ranking of No. 57 in Auckland and won the final, losing just one set to Israel’s Lina Glushko, Austria’s Julia Graeber and Hailey Baptiste, and USA’s Alicia Parks.
“I want to take every match seriously and if someone beats me, I want it to be the fight of their life,” Osaka said. “I want to build that reputation in the tennis community. I just hope that I can fight for everything.”
“It was really hard to get that mindset last year and you saw that in a lot of my matches. There was tennis all year but it was a mindset thing and now here I think I’m ready for battle.”
Osaka said her absence from tennis after giving birth gave her a new perspective.
“I feel like a veteran and a newbie at the same time,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been out of the game in phases where I admit I’m playing new people because they’re new people that come into the game every year and obviously I’ve been out for a year and some changes.
“I’m very curious about the kind of people these young players are. I feel a lot of responsibility and I feel like I’m not the greatest role model sometimes. But I’m also, I guess, learning and trying my best every year.”
“I’m a bit sad that my great role models are gone, which is Serena and of course Venus. And I hope I can play as many years as them and build a really good foundation for the sport.”
