(Photo credit score: Mike Frey-Imagn Images)
Naomi Osaka exited the Australian Open the identical approach she bowed out of her earlier two occasions — retiring midmatch resulting from harm.
The 27-year-old Japanese star pulled out of her third-round match in opposition to Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic after dropping the primary set 7-6 (3) on Friday in Melbourne, Australia.
The official ailment wasn’t introduced, however a coach gave the impression to be serving to Osaka together with her stomach space late within the first set, and an stomach harm pressured Osaka out of the ultimate of the Auckland, New Zealand, occasion earlier this month.
Osaka additionally stopped throughout her fourth-round match at her closing match of 2024 at Beijing.
Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, has struggled since returning to the tour after a chronic break to take care of her psychological well being and to present beginning to a daughter in 2023.
Bencic, one other of the moms on the WTA Tour, wrote a message to Osaka on the tv digicam following the match: “Get well soon, Mama.”
Earlier Friday, two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus prolonged the longest Australian Open ladies’s singles profitable streak in additional than a decade by advancing out of the third spherical.
Sabalenka obtained previous Denmark’s Clara Tauson 7-6 (5), 6-4 in 2 hours, 6 minutes.
The victory was the seventeenth in a row for Sabalenka on the occasion. The final girl with an extended streak was one other Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka, who received 18 in a row from 2012 to 2014, capturing the title within the first two of these years.
Sabalenka emerged with extra winners (39-26) and fewer unforced errors (33-25) than Tauson in a match that featured 11 service breaks — together with every of the primary seven video games.
Sabalenka didn’t reap the benefits of 4 set factors at 5-6 within the first set earlier than prevailing in a tiebreaker. Tauson misplaced her serve early within the second set, then fought again to a 4-4 tie earlier than Sabalenka took the ultimate two video games.
Tauson is ranked forty second on this planet however has by no means reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal.
“She put me under pressure,” Sabalenka stated. “She played really great tennis under pressure, as well. It was great level from her. If she’s going to continue working, improving herself, playing the way she played today, of course, she’s going to be there (at the highest level).”
In different Friday motion, No. 18 Donna Vekic of Croatia outlasted No. 12 Diana Shnaider of Russia 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 7-5. No. 11 Paula Badosa of Spain downed No. 17 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, and No. 27 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia routed Germany’s Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-2.
The later Friday slate was resulting from embody No. 7 Jessica Pegula of the United States in opposition to Serbia’s Olga Danilovic plus No. 3 Coco Gauff of the United States in opposition to No. 30 Leylah Fernandez of Canada. The Gauff-Fernandez winner will earn a matchup with Bencic.
–Field Level Media