OSAKA BEATEN IN DUBAI
The two-time major champion had trouble with her serve and was beaten, 6-3, 6-3, by 67th-ranked Kristina Mladenovic at the Dubai Championships in a little more than an hour on Tuesday.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Naomi Osaka lost her first match since moving up to No. 1 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings—and first since splitting from her coach.
The two-time major champion had trouble with her serve and was beaten, 6-3, 6-3, by 67th-ranked Kristina Mladenovic at the Dubai Championships in a little more than an hour on Tuesday.
Afterward, Osaka wiped away tears while speaking to reporters and discussing the difficulty of dealing with her new-found spot atop the sport.
“I don’t think I necessarily understand what position I’m in, in a way. Because last year, I wasn’t even anywhere close to this ranking. People didn’t pay attention to me—and that’s something that I’m comfortable with,” Osaka said.
“I don’t really like attention,” she said. “It’s been a little tough.” Playing a secondround match after an opening bye as the tournament’s top seed, Osaka won only 5 of 27 second-serve points, just 19 percent, and barely half of her firstserve points, 12 of 22. She was broken seven of the nine times she served. Mladenovic came into the Dubai Championships with a record of 0-4 in 2019. Osaka had not competed since winning the Australian Open in January for her second consecutive Grand Slam title, a victory that also allowed her to become the first tennis player from Asia to lead the rankings.
Last week, Osaka announced on Twitter that she would no longer work with Coach Sascha Bajin, who began coaching her before last season and helped her win the US Open in September.
Osaka didn’t offer an explanation for the split at the time, but addressed it during a media availability before the Dubai tournament, saying: “Everyone thinks it was a money-related issue, but it wasn’t .... I think my reason is I wouldn’t put success over my happiness.”
In other action on Tuesday at the hard-court tournament, secondseeded Petra Kvitova—the runnerup to Osaka at the Australian Open—beat Katerina Siniakova, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4; third-seeded Simona Halep—Osaka’s predecessor at No. 1—defeated Eugenie Bouchard
7-6 (5), 6-4; and No. 4 seed Karolina Pliskova edged Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
No. 7 seed Kiki Bertens lost to Viktoria Kuzmova, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (6), while No. 11 Daria Kasatkina was eliminated by 20-year-old American Sofia Kenin, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.
In Rio de Janeiro, top seeds Dominic Thiem of Austria, and Italy’s Fabio Fognini and Marco Cecchinato were ousted in the first round of the Rio Open clay-court tournament on Tuesday.
No. 1-seeded Thiem lost to Serbia’s Laslo Dere, 6-3, 6-3, while the second-seeded Fognini was defeated by Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, 6-2, 6-3. Thirdseeded Cecchinato, who won the Argentina Open on Sunday, was also eliminated by Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene, 7-5, 7-6 (1).
The fifth and sixth seeds also lost their matches in the tournament. Portugal’s Joao Sousa was defeated 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 by Argentina’s Guido Pella and Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic lost to Britain’s Cameron Norrie, 6-2, 6-1.
Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman, who is the fourth seed and defending champion, is expected to play later Tuesday.
Defending champion Frances Tiafoe, meanwhile, squandered an early lead and lost on Tuesday to Britain’s Daniel Evans in the first round of the Delray Beach Open, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5, in Delray Beach, Florida.
Tiafoe, seeded No. 3, lost his third match in a row. He won the first five games and was up 4-1 in the third set but couldn’t close out the match against Evans, ranked No. 148.
Top-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, playing his first match after missing four months with a right-knee injury, swept Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 7-5.
No. 2 John Isner eliminated Peter Polansky 6-3, 7-6 (4). No. 4 Steve Johnson beat Jason Jung 7-6 (3), 6-4.