Osaka says abdominal injury was “inevitable”, hopes to be back for US swing

When Naomi Osaka arrived in Melbourne, she knew it was entirely possible that the abdominal injury which had affected her in Auckland would catch up with her again during the first Grand Slam of the year.

She hoped otherwise, and the fact that her game looked in such good nick would have convinced her to keep going as long as she could but on Friday, it proved to be too much, the four-time Grand Slam champion withdrawing after losing the first set of her third-round battle with Belinda Bencic.

It turns out that the abdominal injury is something she has been dealing with since she was a teenager. “It was a little hectic trying to manage it because obviously my draw was quite tough,” she said, having beaten Caroline Garcia and Karolina Muchova in the first two rounds.

“We were also doing everything we could. I was going to therapy every day and stuff like that into the night. So the days have been very long for me. Obviously after my last match it got way worse. Credit to her for being such a good opponent but it was just, I guess, a little inevitable. But I think the competitor in me just wanted to see it through until the end.”

“It’s more because of the way my serve is”

Osaka said the abdominal injury was something she had to deal with almost on an annual basis.

“Honestly I kind of have a history of it since I was a teenager,” she said. “At least once a year I’d get an ab strain, and it’s usually during Stuttgart, so shout-out to Stuttgart.

“I want to say it’s more like the way my serve is. It’s quite explosive. Even when I think about last year, I didn’t get an ab strain in the middle of the season. It was more towards the end, like Beijing. So in a weird way I’m kind of proud of that. Unfortunately, it carried on to the beginning of this season, but hopefully I can get it together in time for the U.S. swing.

Osaka said the injury was more frustrating because she was playing so well.

“I feel like if I could have served, then I could have potentially won, and I could have maybe gone far in the tournament,” she said. “It’s hard to stay in the moment sometimes in regards to getting injured, because obviously I was in the final in Auckland, too, and it sucks, because I also think I could have maybe won that tournament and it could have been, like, my first tournament win back.

“But I do have to see it as I think I played really well today regardless of the fact that I was injured. And it was really fun to play such a close battle. I thought the points were fun while I was playing them. I just hope that I can, I guess, figure it out and figure out how to get healthy in time.”

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