Not exactly seven days after she won the US Open, three-time major champion Naomi Osaka of Japan reported via social media that she won’t play in the French Open in Paris.
“Unfortunately I won’t be able to play the French Open this year,” Osaka said in posts on Twitter and Instagram on Thursday. “My hamstring is still sore so I won’t have enough time to prepare for the clay — these 2 tournaments came too close to each other for me this time.”
Osaka, 22, had her left hamstring wrapped all through the US Open. She recently told journalists she suffered the injury during the Western and Southern Open, which was held seven days before the beginning of the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
Osaka pulled back from the Western and Southern Open final, refering to the hamstring injury, giving Victoria Azarenka the success through a walkover. Osaka energized to overcome Azarenka 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the US Open final on Saturday.
With the success, Osaka, a previous world No. 1, moved up six spots to No. 3 in the WTA rankings.
Each of the six of Osaka’s career singles titles have been on hard courts, including her US Open win during the end of the week. She additionally won the US Open in 2018 and the Australian Open in 2019.
Other than Osaka’s nonattendance, the women’s singles draw will be missing the loss of the current world No. 1 and the reigning French Open champion. Ashleigh Barty of Australia recently had reported she would not be going to Europe to defend her title, refering to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as factoring in her absence of readiness to play at Roland Garros.
The opening round of the French Open starts September 27, yet the French Tennis Federation has restricted the number fans ready to go to only 5,000 every day because of the expanding number of Covid cases in the nation.
