Osaka to bypass Wimbledon because of ‘stubborn’ achilles injury
FORMER world No.1 Naomi Osaka pulled out of Wimbledon for the second successive year on Saturday, blaming an achilles injury.
“My achilles still isn’t right so I’ll see you next time,” the four-time grand slam title winner posted on Twitter.
Osaka, 24, was already considering not playing because of the ATP and WTA tours’ decision to strip Wimbledon of ranking points after the All England Club banned Russian and Belarusian players in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Osaka’s tweet, although not mentioning Wimbledon specifically, was accompanied by a photo of herself on a grass court, and an emoji of a blade of grass.
“Wishing you a speedy return to full fitness, @naomiosaka,” tweeted the Wimbledon tournament in response.
The Japanese player first suffered the achilles problem in her opening match in Madrid in May, and the injury forced her to pull out of the Italian Open.
This month she posted a video of a training exercise on social media accompanied by the caption: “Here’s me running on an underwater treadmill because my achilles is being stubborn still. I must be ageing or something.”
Osaka’s name had appeared on the singles entry list for Wimbledon when it was released last week, but she has not featured in any of the grass-court warm-up events. Osaka, who has never got beyond the third round at the All England Club, raised the possibility of missing the grass court grand slam after her first-round loss at last month’s French Open.
“I’m leaning more towards not playing given the current circumstances,” she said. “I’m the type of player that gets motivated by seeing my ranking go up. I feel like if I play Wimbledon without points, it’s more like an exhibition.”