Injured Naomi Osaka pulls out of Italian Open
By Oviri Kelvin
•Swiss Wawrinka wins first match after 15 months
World No 38 Japanese Naomi Osaka has pulled out of the Italian Open over an injury she sustained at the Madrid Open.
The four-time tennis champion had during the Madrid Open, sustained an Achilles tendon injury which forced her out of the Italian Open in Rome.
According to her, she needed to pull out to take care of herself ahead of the French Open at Roland Garros on May 22, 2022.
She said, “Unfortunately I’m going to have to withdraw from Rome as the injury which I picked up last week in Madrid hasn’t healed yet.
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“It’s an Achilles injury so I need to be careful, especially in advance of Roland Garros,” Osaka added.
Meanwhile, world 361st ranked Swiss Stan Wawrinka has won his first ATP Tour match in the Italian Open after 15months on the sidelines.
The champion, who won the Grand Slam three times, beat American Reilly Opelka 3-6 7-5 6-2 in Rome to proceed to the round of 32.
Wawrinka did not stay out of action for this long deliberately but was forced conditionally, having sustained an injury on his foot in March 2021.
Consequent upon the withdrawal of Osaka from the tournament saw her opponent in the round of 64, Spanish Sara Sorribes Tormo, proceed to the round of 32 to face Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens.
Spanish Tormo ousted Osaka from the Madrid Open and was supposed to take on the Japanese in the round of 64 in Rome.
After the contest between the duo in Madrid, Osaka complained of feeling a sharp pain in her left leg which limited her movement during the bout.
“I felt something in my Achilles after my last match, and like, I wasn’t really able to hit yesterday because I wanted it to go away,” she complained after the match.
“Honestly, I probably should have been a bit smarter about the whole way that I went through everything.
“I feel like I couldn’t play the way that I wanted to play, like I was limited. I don’t even really know what I did to my Achilles, so I’m probably going to get an ultrasound and see what happened, and then I and my team will kind of move forward from there,” Osaka added.
