MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Naomi Osaka withdrew from the Australian Open before her scheduled third-round match against Australian qualifier Maddison Inglis on Saturday, ending a campaign noted strikingly for fashion and friction.<\/p>\n
The two-time Australian Open champion announced it on social media without divulging her injury, posting on Instagram that she had to withdraw \u201cto address something my body needs attention for after my last match.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so excited to keep going and this run meant the most to me, so having to stop here breaks my heart,\u201d Osaka posted, \u201cbut I can\u2019t risk doing any further damage so I can get back on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
In comments later published by the tournament, Osaka said she had a left abdominal issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an injury I\u2019ve had a couple of times before, and I thought I could push through it,\u201d she said. \u201cI played my last match with some pain, and I thought maybe if I gave myself a break before my match today, I would be able to handle it. But I warmed up, and it got a lot worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old four-time major winner said she\u2019d need more tests before deciding on long-term treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously I think coming back from pregnancy, my body changed quite a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cSo this is something I have to be really cautious of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osaka had a daughter, Shai, in July 2023 during a 15-month break from the tour. She returned to competition in 2024 and made it back to the semifinals of a major for the first time at last year\u2019s U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just grateful to be otherwise very healthy,\u201d she said, \u201dand I hope that I\u2019m able to play some good tennis for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osaka\u2019s grand entrance to the tournament earlier this week went viral, when she walked onto the court for her first-round match wearing a wide-brim hat, a veil and holding a white parasol \u2014 a design she said her clothing sponsor, Nike, let her create.<\/p>\n
In the second round, Osaka fended off Sorana Cirstea in a tense 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win at Margaret Court Arena that ended acrimoniously.<\/p>\n
The pair barely exchanged a handshake over the net, with Cirstea glancing in Osaka\u2019s direction briefly and then turning her head away.<\/p>\n
As they walked toward the umpire\u2019s chair, Osaka asked, \u201cWhat was that for?\u201d<\/p>\n
Cirstea responded directly to the four-time Grand Slam champion, upset with Osaka\u2019s efforts to pump herself up at stages during the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently a lot of \u2018C\u2019mons\u2019 that she was angry about,\u201d Osaka said, \u201cbut whatever. I think this was her last Australian Open so, OK, sorry she was mad about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osaka won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021. She won two other Grand Slam titles at the U.S. Open, where she beat Serena Williams in the 2018 final and won again in 2020.<\/p>\n
She was seeded 16th for this tournament and was set to play Inglis, ranked No. 168, in a night match on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n
Inglis will next face No. 2-ranked Iga \u015awi\u0105tek, who had a 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 win later Saturday over No. 31 Anna Kalinskaya.<\/p>\n
In an on-court interview following the match, Swiatek was told of Osaka\u2019s withdrawal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully Naomi is well. She was playing great,\u201d said Swiatek, who is in Australia bidding to complete a career Grand Slam. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be in a fourth round again.\u201d<\/p>\n
To the crowd, she said: \u201cHopefully you\u2019re not going to be so harsh for me if I\u2019m playing an Australian!\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/p>\n
John Pye, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Naomi Osaka withdrew from the Australian Open before her scheduled third-round match against Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-431686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}