Two-time Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka stopped playing due to an abdominal muscle strain after losing the first set of her third-round match against Belinda Bencic on Friday.
“I kind of have a history of it, ever since I was a teenager. At least once a year I had abdominal tension. For me, I mean it’s more the way my serve is, it’s quite explosive,” Osaka said, explaining that she was injured during a tournament in Beijing, where she dropped out during of a match against Coco Gauff on October 1st. , this continued until the start of this season.
This was Osaka’s first appearance in the third round of a major tournament since 2022. She missed time in recent seasons due to mental health issues, then was absent from the tour while she was pregnant.
Her daughter, Shai, was born in July 2023.
Osaka began 2025 by advancing to the final of a tournament in Auckland, New Zealand on January 5, but she stopped participating in the title match there due to an abdominal injury .
Then, she said, the problem got “much worse” after her second-round victory in Melbourne on Wednesday against 2023 French Open finalist Karolina Muchova.
“It was, I guess, kind of inevitable, but I think the competitor in me just wanted to go all the way,” Osaka said. “I just hope I can figure it out and figure out how to be healthy in time” before the tour heads to events in Indian Wells and Miami in March, she added.
On Friday, Osaka — a former No. 1-ranked player who owns a total of four Grand Slam titles — received a visit from a coach during the changeover while leading 6-5. The coach examined Osaka’s abdominal area and gave her a pill to take, and play resumed.
Just before the tiebreaker began, Osaka went to her coaches’ box on the court and spoke briefly with Patrick Mouratoglou.
After Bencic won the tiebreaker by a score of 7-6 (3), winning four of the last five points thanks to unforced errors from Osaka, the chair umpire announced that the match was over after 57 minutes, “due to injury”.
The two players embraced on the sidelines and Osaka left the field. She won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021, as well as the US Open in 2018 and 2020.
“I hope she gets well soon and can play the rest of the season,” said Bencic, who won a singles gold medal for Switzerland at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Bencic, who is also a mother, drew a heart on the lens of a television camera near the field and wrote: “Get well, mom. »
Next up for Bencic will be a fourth-round clash against 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff or 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, who were scheduled to face each other on Friday night.
“I’ll watch a little bit, if I can,” Bencic said, “but I think I’ll do my recovery time and try to focus on my recovery.”
Bencic, who returned to action last October after having her first baby, has never made it past the fourth round in her last 11 appearances at Melbourne Park.
She lost at this stage a year ago to two-time champion Aryna Sabalenka.
