Coco Gauff offered some brutally honest thoughts following Naomi Osaka’s shock Beijing retirement as the American admitted that she noticed something was wrong with the Japanese and didn’t want to force too much but still didn’t expect the match to end the way it did.
In the Beijing round-of-16, tennis fans had a chance to see the two Grand Slam champions clash against each other for the first time in two years. And after the American miraculously recovered from a set and a break down to send the match into a third set, it looked like a big comeback was on the way.
But then, it all ended in an abrupt way after Osaka told the chair umpire that she was retiring due to an injury. The 26-year-old won the opening set with a 6-3 scoreline before losing the following 4-6.
“I wasn’t sure if it was her hip or back, I just knew that towards the end she could barely jump on her serve, so I knew that it was something that, in the moment, was probably bad but hopefully it’s something that’s not a long-term thing,” Gauff shared.
After recovering from an early second-set break down, the Japanese broke the No. 4 seed in the seventh game to open a 4-3 lead and give herself a chance to serve her way into the China Open quarterfinal. But from that moment on, the 2019 Beijing champion’s…
