Rusty Osaka falls as Coco eases through

MELBOURNE, January 15

Naomi Osaka did not enjoy the fairytale 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 today.

Osaka returned to the tour after 15 months out during which she had her first child and the four-time Grand Slam champiolooked 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 it was Garcia who 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.

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 last year, romped into the second round on a sunny Day 2 morning.

Fourth-seeded Gauff admitted to making a nervous start in the first match on Rod Laver Arena but quickly hit her stride to rattle off the last nine games for a convincing 6-3 6-0 win over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

“I just freed up and everything started to fall in place,” said Gauff, playing her last Grand Slam as a teenager.

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 last year but found the shoe on the other foot as she succumbed to a 6-1 6-2 upset loss.

The 2024 crop of qualifiers have caused a host of problems for top players on the opening two days of the tournament. — Reuters