Open star serves up match full of errors

WORLD tennis No.1 Naomi Osaka has been beaten in her first match since winning last month’s s Australian Open tthen splitting with her coach last week.

The Japanese star went down 6-3 6 6-3, 3, 66- 6-3 3 to France France’s s Kristina Mladenovic at the Dubai Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Championships.

Osaka (pictured left) struggled with her service, winning only 48 per cent of her firstserve points, and made 25 unforced errors, folding in just over an hour. Mladenovic hit three fewer winners than Osaka’s s 19, but made nine unforced errors and converted seven of the 10 break point opportunities she carved out. “It means a lot, honestly ” Mladenovic denovic said said. “I know Im I’m capable of beating great playersplayers. I did that in the past on this court.”

The Frenchwoman, who is ranked 67th in the world, faces Spain Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro in the round of 16.

Osaka’s shock exit was the most dramatic result on a day in which most of the other big names in action progressed safely to the third round. Australian Open runner-up Petra Kvitova rallied from a set down to beat Czech Republic compatriot Katerina Siniakova 6-7 7 (3-7), 6 6-4 6-4, 4, 6-4 6 6-4, 4, while third seed Simona Halep advanced with a 7 7-6 6 (7-4), 6- 6 6-4 4 victory over Canadian wildcard E Eugenie Bouchard. Kvitova Kvitova, the second seed, set up a clash with American qualifier Jennifer Brady. A POTENTIALLY spicy clash between Australians Jordan Thompson and Bernard Tomic has been lost at the Delray Beach Open in Florida with the pair experiencing differing fortunes at the ATP event event.

Thompson enjoyed a first- first first-round round 7- 7 7-5, 5, 5 6 6-1 1 win over Germany Germany’s s Marcel Granollers while Tomic went down to Italian veteran Andreas Seppi 6 6-4 6-4, 4, 7 7- 7-5. 5. 5 World No No.68 68 Thompson will now take on Seppi for a spot in the quarte quarters.

Thompson played doubles with John Peers in Australia Australia’s s recent Davis Cup qualifying tie victory against Bosnia Herzegovina Herzegovina. A regular in the squad squad, he is seen as being very much in Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt’s camp — unlike Tomic, who fell out with Hewitt at the Australian Open.