MELBOURNE, Australia — Naomi Osaka is out of the Australian Open after the abdominal injury that forced her out of the ASB Classic final in Auckland, New Zealand recurred during her third-round match against Belinda Bencic.
Osaka was leading 5-2 and pushing Bencic all across the court, looking like the Osaka of old, when the four-time Grand Slam champion suddenly stopped being able to move like she had been moving during the first seven games. By the ninth game, she could barely lift on her serve, and repeatedly backed away from the baseline to gather herself, push through another point and see if the discomfort might ease.
It didn’t. When Bencic finished off the set in a tiebreak, Osaka motioned to her box, stuffed her rackets in her bag and headed off the court.
The injury ends what had looked at times like a stirring run for Osaka in Australia and New Zealand. She was a set up against Clara Tauson in Auckland when the injury forced her to retire. Scans on the injury were “not great,” she said in a news conference, but they were good enough for a player who said she had come to terms with the idea of playing under conditions that are far from ideal.
Even with the lingering abdominal issue, she managed the biggest win of her comeback from maternity leave when she beat Karolina Muchova from 6-1 down in the second round in Melbourne. She was one match away from a potential blockbuster showdown with Coco Gauff, who plays Leylah Fernandez later on Friday, when it flared up again and ended her first Grand Slam campaign of 2025. Osaka was a set and 4-3 up on Gauff in Beijing when she injured her back, ultimately retiring after Gauff leveled the scores to force a deciding set.
Bencic, herself returning to the WTA Tour after giving birth to her first child, wrote Osaka a “get well soon” message on the camera lens when it was over. She knocked out the seeded and dangerous Jelena Ostapenko in the first round, before beating Suzan Lamens in the second.
GO DEEPER
Belinda Bencic believes in herself, because of the women who came before her
(Photo: Yuichi Yamazaki / AFP via Getty Images)
