Naomi Osaka shows she is recovering from a abdominal injury that forced her to leave the Australian Open in January, but becoming keen and tough will take more time.
Osaka is a four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1, losing to Colombia’s Camila Osorio in the first round of the Indian Wells, and the 53rd World Time (6-4, 6-4). On social media, she later described the failure as “the worst competition I’ve ever played in my life.”
Osaka ranked 56th, and Osorio also died in the first eight games, but Osaka made a series of mistakes with a 4-4 record. It gives Osorio a chance to offer a suit, and the dirty Colombians don’t waste it.
The game is the epitome of the game. Osaka has committed various ways. The ball flew far away. Some missed a few inches. Others missed a few feet.
Mistakes are especially common when Osaka is under pressure. Osaka and Patrick Mouratoglou are her coaches who have been focusing on this dynamic for months since September and seem to have made progress as Osaka starts rolling at the beginning of the year.
Osaka intensified the abdominal injury and had to retire after the first set, in the Oakland final and against Clara Tauson against Clara Tauson. Osaka has played some of the best tennis balls since returning to the Australian Open from maternity leave early in 2024, including beating Carolina Mudova, one of the world’s top players.
Osaka then tensed her muscles again and had to retire from the third round against Belinda Bencic after the first set. She ruled Bencic until she was injured.
Osaka returns to California and rest. But she had two tough trainings before India’s Wells, and Mouratoglou announced that she was ready to go. Maybe it’s physical, but tennis isn’t there.
“It’s crazy for me, dreams come true,” said Osorio, 23, who has never won a match in India’s Wells. Her victory marked the first time a woman in Colombia defeated the former world number one.
For Osaka, which won Wells in India in 2018, the loss allowed her to rest before heading to the Miami Open, one of the closest events to her heart and her growing up in South Florida. After the failure, Osaka confirmed that her body was suitable, but her condition was not there.
“I don’t think my ending is very good,” she said in a press conference.
She described a frustrating month after the Australian Open, she was allowed to stop playing for a week and never serve again, and then was allowed to slowly start serving, but only if she slowly increases her strength every week to avoid reattacking her abdominal muscles.
“I’m doing well in Australia,” she said. “It feels a bit like stopping and starting over.”
That said, even if it was losing money, Osaka said she started feeling much better than last year, when she struggled to find any consistency. Or maybe she’s used to the idea that she might never go back to the sport smoothly.
“It felt like a bumpy road,” she said. “I felt like I was doing well, but I still felt like I had a lot of opportunities to compete.”
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(Photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
