Naomi Osaka She showed that she was on the way to heal Australian open In January, getting sharp and a match will take more time.
Osaka, the Grand Salam champion four times and the former world, lost to Camilla Osorio from Colombia, world number 53, in consecutive groups on Wednesday night (6-4, 6-4) in the first round of Indian Wales. On social media, I later described the defeat as “the worst match I played in my life.”
Osaka died, ranked 56th, and Osurio died even through the first eight games, but Osaka made a wave of mistakes while serving it in 4-4. Osurio gave the opportunity to serve the group, and the brave Colombian was not lost.
The game was a mini image of the match. Osaka made errors in every way. Balls flew long and wide. Some are a few inches lost. Others were missed by a few feet.
The mistakes were especially prevalent when Osaka was under pressure. Osaka and Patrick Muratoglu, its coach since September, have focused on that dynamic for several months and it seemed that they had made progress with Osaka’s criticism at the beginning of the year.
Osaka made the finals in Auckland and was rolling against Clara Toton when it exacerbated a abdominal injury and had to retire after the first group. Osaka has played some of her best forgetting since her return from maternity vacation at the beginning of 2024 to 2/2 games in the Australian Open, including a victory over Carolina Mustova, one of the best players in the world.
After that, Osaka was tired of the muscles again and had to retire from its match in the third round with Belanda Benussic after the first group. She had taken control of Pensik until the injury.
Osaka returned to California and comfort. But she had two hard weeks of training before Indian Wales, and Mouratoglou announced her willingness to go. Physically, perhaps, but the tennis was not there.
“It is a crazy thing for me, a dream has become a reality,” said Osurio, 23, who has never won a match in Indian Wales. Her victory is the first time that a woman from Colombia overcame the previous world number 1.
For Osaka, who won in Indian Wales in 2018, she allows her to break comfort before she goes to Miami Open, one of the most closest events to her heart and with the arrival of where she grew up in South Florida. After her defeat, Osaka confirmed that her body was decent, but her shape was not there.
“I don’t think I was good at my end,” she said at her press conference.
She described a frustrating month after the Australian Open, which was not allowed to play for a week, she could not work for another week, then allowed to start slowly in service but only if she slowly increased her week per week so that she does not return the abdomen.
“I have done a good performance in Australia,” she said. “It seems like it’s stop starting again.”
However, even with the loss, Osaka said that her start this year looks much better than last year, when she struggled to find any consistency. Or maybe get used to the idea that is likely to have a smooth journey to the highest sport.
She said, “It seems to be a bump on the way.” “I don’t feel that I played well, but I still feel I have a lot of opportunities to be in the match.”
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(Photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
