Naomi Osaka is well known for focusing her attention mainly on winning slams. The Japanese sensation has already withdrawn on a couple of occasions before playing slams. In 2020, she didn’t play the Western and Southern final that was staged right before the US Open. Last year, she decided not to play the semi-final in a warm-up event in Melbourne before the Australian Open.
History repeated itself, and Naomi Osaka has just announced that she will not play the semi-final all of the current WTA250, citing an abdominal injury. This means that Veronika Kudermetova has a free pass in the final.
This was Naomi’s message on Twitter:
Probably, Naomi decided not to play in order to preserve her body for the Australian Open. Recently, Martina Navratilova criticized Naomi Osaka for not paying too much attention to smaller tournaments.
Now ranked no.13, Naomi owns an overall 3-0 match record in 2022. Osaka is now competing in Melbourne where she ousted Alize Cornet 6-4 3-6 6-3, Maryna Zanevska 6-1 6-1 and Andrea Petkovic 6-1 7-5.
Naomi Osaka will compete against the world no.31 Veronika Kudermetova in the semifinal. They have never competed against each other so far in top events.
Osaka won 7 titles in her career: all of them conquered on hard courts. (See the list of her titles)
Naomi Osaka |
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