Naomi Osaka pulls out of Australian Open an hour before match and issues statement | Tennis | Sport

Naomi Osaka has been forced to withdraw from the Australian Open because of an injury problem. She announced the news around an hour before she was due to face Maddy Inglis in the third round. Osaka was shown on TV warming up before the match and didn’t appear to be nursing any obvious issues in the footage.

However, she later confirmed that she wouldn’t be able to play against Inglis, who has advanced to the fourth round as a result. Osaka was due to play on Rod Laver Arena following the conclusion of Novak Djokovic‘s match against Botic van de Zandschulp. However, her withdrawal forced a late change to the schedule with a doubles match taking place on the main court instead.

Osaka revealed that she was pulling out of the tournament with a message on her Instagram story, citing a problem that needed attention following her victory over Sorana Cirstea in the previous round.

She wrote: “I’ve had to make the difficult decision to withdraw to address something my body needs attention for after my last match.

“I was so excited to keep going and this run meant the most to me, so having to stop here breaks my heart but I can’t risk doing any further damage so I can get back on the court.

“Thanks for all the love and support… I’m so grateful everyone embraced me so much. And thank you to my whole team for always having my back and the tournament organisers for being so kind.”

It was later confirmed that Osaka had been forced to withdraw from the tournament due to a left abdominal injury.