Four-time Grand Slam champion, Naomi Osaka of Japan, has on Friday pulled out of next week’s Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
27-year-old legendary Osaka dropped out of this week’s Japan open in Osaka, following back injury.
Recall that Osaka was set to compete at the Pan Pacific Open as a wild card but organisers said she would be “absent because of a lower back injury.”
Erstwhile world number one tennis star has been sidelined since she retired from her last-16 match at the China Open against eventual champion Coco Gauff at the beginning of the month.
Osaka’s appearance at the China Open was her first tournament under Patrick Mouratoglou, the Frenchman best known for being Serena Williams’s long-time former coach.
She has been struggling for regular showing since she returned to the game in January after the birth of her daughter Shai in July 2023. The best results she has gotten since she became a mother have been two quarter-final appearances.
Recall that China’s Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen — ranked number seven in the world — is the top-ranked player at the Pan Pacific Open.
Russia’s Daria Kasatkina and Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia are also set to compete.
AFP
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