Bad news from Naomi Osaka after a disastrous quarterfinal in Cincinnati. The Japanese looked to be in good form against a tenacious Sofia Kenin, but eventually she had to surrender to a knee injury at the beginning of the 3rd set.
Naomi was trailing 6-4 1-6 2-0 before she had to withdraw. Osaka had a lengthy medical time-out after losing the 1st game in the decider. Then she went back on court with her knee heavily strapped before conceding the match to the American.
Will Naomi Osaka play the US Open?
Now the big question is if Naomi will be fit to compete in the last slam of the year to defend her title. The Japanese admitted that she is now worried to say:
“It sucks, especially since I didn’t want to get injured this close to the Open. And now I’m kind of worried a little bit. The injured part sucks but losing; it’s not that big of a deal. She was playing well.
My pain tolerance is really high, that’s usually why I play through things that apparently I shouldn’t.
I really don’t know what’s going on with my leg right now. I was asking the trainer if it was safe to play because I really hate withdrawing. I went out there; I wanted to finish the set. But I felt this like it wasn’t safe.”
Live Rankings: Osaka may lose the world no.1 place
To add insult to injury, Naomi may also lose her world no.1 status if Ashleigh Barty reaches the final. In fact, Osaka has now 6606 “live points” vs. Barty’s 6501. However, if the Australian wins her next match against Svetlana Kuznetsova, she will have 6736 points to get back her world no.1 rank from Monday.