Great news for Naomi Osaka that will retain her world no.1 rank in Rome, and she will be seeded no.1 also at the French Open.

Why Osaka will stay no.1

After last crazy Thursday when most of the players and to compete twice in the day, the Japanese managed to trounce Dominika Cibulkova and Mihaela Buzarnescu with the same result (6-3 6-3).

Halep Out

The same didn’t happen for her direct competitors for the world no.1 rank. Simona Halep was the next in line, but eventually she lost 2-6 7-5 6-3 to Marketa Vondrousova in her opening match.

Kvitova Injured

Rome was a tough place also for Petra Kvitova that is leading the Year to Date rankings. In fact, after the Czech demolished Yulia Putinseva 6-0 6-1 in the opening match, she had to retire when facing Maria Sakkari in the 3rd round because of an injury to her left calf when she was 7-5 5-7 4-0 down

The next in line to get the world no.1 rank would be Kiki Bertens that is also Naomi’s next opponent. If the Dutch wins the title in Rome, she will have 5955 points vs. Osaka’s 6486 points.

Head to head Naomi Osaka vs. Kiki Bertens

This will be the 3rd time that Naomi and Kiki play each other. The head to head is 1-all, but they never squared off on clay.

Head 2 Head

• 4Slam
• 7Main
• 0ITF
• 0Minor

• 0Slam
• 10Main
• 4ITF
• 3Minor

Naomi
Osaka

2:1

Kiki
Bertens

Rank

197

High

1

2Hard0

0I.hard1

Rank

High

4

Win Loss

Osaka

LWLWLWWLWW

Bertens

2024 2023 2022

9 - 8

0 - 0

7-6

Hard

0-0

1-0

I Hard

0-0

1-2

Clay

0-0