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Naomi Osaka’s path at the Australian Open 2024 ended immediately. The Japanese tennis player, two-time champion in Australia, surrendered in two sets to the French Caroline Garcia with a score of 6-4 7-6 (2) in the 1st round of the Australian Slam, showing that she is far from her best form. A bad joke for her, considering that the Frenchwoman was then eliminated in the 2nd round by Pole Magdalena Frech in straight sets.
A disappointing result for the 26-year-old Japanese girl, who expressed her dissatisfaction with this difficult return to Melbourne in the press conference. The former WTA No.1 declared that she gave her all against a rather difficult opponent.
“I think it was a great match. For me, I felt I gave the best I could. It was very nice to be back on the Rod Laver, feeling the crowd, how much they interacted with the match. It was fun,” said Osaka.
For the Japanese tennis player, it was a match in which she didn’t even manage to get a break point. “The responses were very important, but I think I could have done a little more from groundstrokes. I felt like I was constantly on the back foot and very hesitant. I think it’s due to the fact that I hadn’t played matches in a while. I was a little overthinking…
