Naomi Osaka showed that she is on the strategy to recovering the abdominal injury, which she forced the Australian Open in January, but sharp and Match Tough will take somewhat more time.
Osaka, the four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1, lost in the primary round of the Indian Wells against Camila Osorio from Colombia, the world No. 53, in straight sentences (6-4, 6-4). On social media, she later described the defeat because the “worst match that I have ever played in my life”.
Osaka, the 56th place, and Osorio were even dead in the primary eight games, but Osaka committed a flood of mistakes at 4: 4. There was the chance to serve the set, and the spun Colombian didn’t waste it.
The game was a microcosm of the sport. Osaka has made mistakes in every respect. Balls flew long and wide. Some missing by a number of centimeters. Others miss a number of meters.
The mistakes were particularly widespread when Osaka was under pressure. Osaka and Patrick Mouratoglou, their trainer since September, focused on this dynamic for months and appeared to be a job when Osaka got on the way in which at the start of the 12 months.
Osaka scored the ultimate in Auckland and rolled against Clara Tauson when she worsened a belly injury and retired after the primary sentence. Osaka played a few of her best tennis since her return from maternity leave in early 2024 to 2 1/2 games on the Australian Open, including one victory against Karolina Muchova, among the best players on this planet.
Then Osaka burdened the muscle again and, after the primary set, needed to withdraw from her game within the third round with Belinda Bencic. She had dominated Bencic to the injury.
Osaka returned to California and rested. But she had two hard weeks of coaching in front of Indian wells, and Mouratoglou said she was able to go. Maybe the tennis is probably not there.
“It's crazy for me, a dream comes true,” said 23 -year -old Osorio, who had never won a match in Indian fountain. Her victory was the primary time that a girl from Colombia hit a former world No. 1.
For Osaka, who won Indian Wells in 2018, it enables her to rest before going to Miami Open, one among the events that keep her heart closest and near her event that grew up in Südflorida. After her defeat, Osaka confirmed that her body was fit, but her shape was simply not there.
“I don't think I was too good at my end,” she said in her press conference.
She described a frustrating month after the Australian Open, through which she was not allowed to play for per week and was then allowed to serve slowly, but provided that she slowly increased her intensity from week to week in order not to alleviate her abdominal muscle.
“I did well in Australia,” she said. “It feels a bit like starting again.”
Despite the loss, Osaka said that her begin to the 12 months was much better than last 12 months when she tried to search out a consistency. Or perhaps she gets used to the concept that she’s going to probably never take a smooth journey to the highest of the game.
“It feels like a bump on the street,” she said. “I don't have the feeling that I played well at all, but I still have the feeling that I had so many chances of being involved.”
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