Osaka crashes, Gauff cruises
Naomi Osaka did not enjoy the fairy-tale return she hoped for at the Australian Open as the twice-champion lost 6-4 7-6(2) to French 16th seed Caroline Garcia in the opening round.
Osaka returned to the tour after 15 months out during which she had her first child and the four-time Grand Slam champion looked rusty at times in her first appearance at a Major since 2022 as Garcia capitalised to ease through the first set.
The two players were more evenly matched in the next, but Garcia stepped up a gear in the tiebreak to go through.
“I thought it was a really good match and I thought I did as well as I possibly could,” Osaka said.
“The competitor in me is not happy that I’m not winning these matches [but] I think I just need to work hard and play a lot more matches and then hopefully my dreams will come true.”
Coco Gauff first made a big splash at Melbourne Park in 2020 with an upset of holder Osaka and the 19-year-old American, who claimed her first Major at the US Open in 2023, romped into the second round on a sunny day two morning.
Fourth seed Gauff admitted to a nervous start but hit her stride to rattle off the last nine games for a 6-3 6-0 win over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
Marketa Vondrousova, another new member of the Grand Slam champions club, made a humbling exit after crashing out to Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska.
The Czech was the first unseeded player to win the women’s trophy at Wimbledon in 2023, but found the shoe on the other foot as she succumbed to a 6-1 6-2 upset loss.
Third seed Daniil Medvedev was perhaps fortunate that his opponent, Terence Atmane, retired injured during his opening match. The French qualifier, who had taken the first set off the 2021 US Open champion before Medvedev levelled the contest, was holding his own in the third when he began suffering severe cramps in his thigh.
The 22-year-old struggled on for almost an hour but finally called time on his first Grand Slam main draw match while trailing the Russian 5-7 6-2 6-4 1-0.