Naomi Osaka did her utmost to land a spot in the third round of Wimbledon, but she has suffered an early exit.
The 26-year-old impressed in round one against Diane Parry, with Osaka appearing at Wimbledon for the first time since 2019.
A hard-fought 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 win was secured in a ‘stressful’ match to seal a second round meeting with American Emma Navarro.
But it was the 19th seed who came out on top at Wimbledon, defeating Osaka in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 on centre court.
The latter made 16 unforced errors under the SW19 roof, with Navarro making just five as she stormed to the win in just 59 minutes.
Emma Navarro makes Naomi Osaka claim after their Wimbledon match
Osaka has been keen to work on her grass-court game, having asked Novak Djokovic how to slide on the surface.
But she fell short in many other areas against Navarro, with the 23-year-old claiming that she got in her opponent’s head during the centre court meeting.
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“Something that she does really well is that she has a really big serve so I knew that was going to be something I had to deal with today,” Navarro said in her second round press conference.
“I tried to move my positioning around against first serves. I don’t know, maybe that got in her head a little bit, I wanted to try and make her hit the serve she didn’t want to hit and I didn’t want her to know where I was going to be at in terms of positioning.
“Maybe that helped me as a returner today. During the rally my coach said hit through the ball as if you are hitting through a volleyer, as if you are keeping the ball low and staying grounded.”
Naomi Osaka’s Wimbledon struggles continue
Perhaps not much was expected from Osaka at SW19, even if she has won four Grand Slam titles in her superb career so far.
She was competing as a wildcard in London following the birth of her first child last year, but clearly still has problems on grass.
Her four major titles have all come on hard courts, with Osaka winning the US Open twice and the Australian Open twice.
She is yet to progress beyond the third round at Wimbledon, with a first round exit suffered in her last appearance in 2019.
Osaka missed the 2022 event due to injury, while she took breaks from tennis in 2021 in order to focus on her mental health.
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