{"id":428209,"date":"2026-01-25T03:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/428209\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T03:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:07:13","slug":"my-body-has-changed-naomi-osaka-pulls-out-of-australian-open-australian-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/428209\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My body has changed\u2019: Naomi Osaka pulls out of Australian Open | Australian Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naomi Osaka withdrew from the Australian Open<\/a> hours before she was due to take the court against the qualifier Maddison Inglis. She cited an abdominal injury linked to body changes from her pregnancy.<\/p>\n

The withdrawal propelled the Australian into a fourth-round match with Iga Swiatek. The world No 2 and second seed was given an almighty scare by the Russian Anna Kalinskaya before earning a 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 victory in 1hr 44min.<\/p>\n

The two-time Australian Open champion said it was an injury she had experienced \u201ca couple of times\u201d previously. \u201cI 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 she said, adding she still needed to see doctors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely have to do more tests and coming back from pregnancy, my body changed quite a lot. This is something I have to be really cautious of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osaka has a history of abdominal problems and retired during her third-round match<\/a> here last year against Belinda Bencic after a set. The 28-year-old is one of three mothers ranked in the women\u2019s top 20. She initially announced her withdrawal on Instagram at 8pm local time when the preceding match was taking place on centre court.<\/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 but I can\u2019t risk doing any further damage so I can get back on the court,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd thank you to my whole team for always having my back and the tournament organisers for being so kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osaka was due to play Inglis on Rod Laver Arena after the match between Novak Djokovic and Botic van de Zandschulp in a marquee Saturday evening slot.<\/p>\n

The No 16 seed has been in the spotlight during the tournament. She made headlines with her jellyfish-inspired outfit in round one<\/a> and in her last match became embroiled in a row over fair play with Sorana Cirstea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Osaka said it had still been a positive tournament. \u201cIt was nice everyone enjoyed my outfit, but also, I enjoyed playing here. I played two three-set matches and I felt really physically healthy. I guess, not my ab, but just fitness-wise it felt really good,. I\u2019m just grateful to be otherwise very healthy, and I hope that I\u2019m able to play some good tennis for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quick GuideAustralian Open: fourth-round drawsShow<\/p>\n

Men’s singles<\/p>\n

(1) Carlos Alcaraz v Tommy Paul (19)<\/p>\n

(10) Alexander Bublik v Alex de Minaur (6)<\/p>\n

(3) Alexander Zverev v Francisco Cerundolo (18)<\/p>\n

(11) Daniil Medvedev v Learner Tien (25)<\/p>\n

(5) Lorenzo Musetti v Taylor Fritz (9)<\/p>\n

(16) Jakub Mensik v Novak Djokovic (4)<\/p>\n

(8) Ben Shelton v Casper Ruud (12)<\/p>\n

(22) Luciano Darderi v Jannik Sinner (2)<\/p>\n

Women’s singles<\/p>\n

(1) Aryna Sabalenka v Victoria Mboko (17)<\/p>\n

Yulia Putintseva v Iva Jovic (29)<\/p>\n

(3) Coco Gauff v Karolina Muchova (19)<\/p>\n

(12) Elina Svitolina v Mirra Andreeva (8)<\/p>\n

(6) Jessica Pegula v Madison Keys (9)<\/p>\n

Wang Xinyu v Amanda Anisimova (4)<\/p>\n

(5) Elena Rybakina v Elise Mertens (21)<\/p>\n

Madison Inglis v Iga Swiatek (2)<\/p>\n

Sunday’s order of play (singles only)<\/p>\n

Rod Laver Arena<\/p>\n

Day: Sabalenka v Mboko, Alcaraz v Paul<\/p>\n

Night: Bublik v De Minaur, Svitolina v Andreeva<\/p>\n

Margaret Court Arena<\/p>\n

Day: Gauff v Muchova, Medvedev v Tien<\/p>\n

John Cain Arena<\/p>\n

Day: Putintsteva v Jovic, Zverev v Cerundolo<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Officials scrambled to fill the evening slot and rescheduled the men\u2019s doubles match featuring Australian pair Jason Kubler \u2013 Inglis\u2019s fiance \u2013 and Marc Polmans, and Jakub Paul and Marcus Willis, to give ticketholders more action.<\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina, the former Wimbledon champion, cruised past Tereza Valentova 6-2, 6-3 as the fifth seed set up a fourth-round match with the 21st seed, Elise Mertens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka withdrew from the Australian Open hours before she was due to take the court against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-428209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}