Naomi Osaka knocked out of French Open after first-round defeat against Amanda Anisimova




CNN

Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka left French Open in the first round on Monday as she lost 7-5 6-4 to Amanda Anisimova.

Anisimova, 20, a surprise semi-finalist at Roland Garros three years ago, has now beaten Osaka in back-to-back Grand Slams following her third-round victory at the Australian Open in January.

In their last clash at Roland Garros – arguably the pick of the first-round matches in the women’s draw – a tight, ups and down first set featured five breaks of serve, including the first three games of the game.

Anisimova took the lead when she broke Osaka at 5-5 and won the first set in 48 minutes, while in the second she broke at 3-3 and held serve twice to seal the victory .

The American, ranked No. 27 in the world, will face Croatian Donna Vekic in the second round on Wednesday.

“When you see Naomi Osaka in the first round, you don’t think it will be easy,” Anismiova said in her on-court interview after the match.

“It was a very difficult match. I was going there and I knew I had to play good tennis… I’m just very happy to be back here and to pass the first round.

Osaka withdrew from last year’s French Open after refusing to speak to the media in order to protect her mental health.

It prompted a spell away from tennis for the former world No.1, who earlier this year said she started talking to a therapist after being heckled in Indian Wells.

On Friday ahead of her first-round match, Osaka spoke to the media and admitted she was “still thinking” about the events of last year’s tournament.

The loss to Anisimova means Osaka is ending her clay-court swing after playing just three matches: she lost in the second round of the Madrid Open and had to withdraw from the Italian Open due to an ankle injury.

Naomi Osaka moved to tears by Heckler during tennis match

The Japanese star later said she was unsure whether to play at Wimbledon in light of the decision to scrap ranking points from the tournament.

Last week, the men’s and women’s professional circuits, as well as the International Tennis Federation (ITF), announced that ranking points would not be awarded at Wimbledon following the decision to exclude Russian and Belarusian players from the this year’s event in the midst of the war in Ukraine.

“I’m the kind of player who gets motivated by seeing my ranking go up or stuff like that,” Osaka told reporters on Monday.

“I think the intention is really good but the execution is all over the place.”

Elsewhere in the women’s draw, 2020 champion and world No. 1 Iga Swiatek comfortably advanced into the second round with a 6-2 6-0 win over Lesia Tsurenko.

The win extended Swiatek’s unbeaten streak to 29 games – the longest on the WTA Tour since 2013.

Meanwhile, last year’s champion Barbora Krejcikova suffered an early exit with a shock 6-1 2-6 3-6 loss to teenager Diane Parry.

Buoyed by the support of a home crowd, Parry recovered from early breaks at the start of the second and third sets – which included winning six straight matches in the second – to earn her first-ever victory against a top-10 player.

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