Two-time Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka stopped playing with an abdominal muscle strain after losing the first set of her third-round match to Belinda Bencic on Friday.
“I kind of have a history of it, since I was a teenager. At least once a year, I would strain my abdominal muscles,” Osaka said, explaining that she suffered the injury at a tournament in Beijing, where she retired from a match against Coco Gauff on October 1. October: “For me, I want to say that the way I serve is very explosive and it has continued until the beginning of this season.”
It was Osaka's first third-round reach at a major since 2022. She has missed time in recent seasons due to mental health-related breaks, then exited the tour while pregnant.
Her daughter, Shay, was born in July 2023.
Osaka began 2025 by reaching the final of a tournament in Auckland, New Zealand, on January 5, but she stopped playing in the title match there due to an abdominal injury.
She said the problem became “much worse” after her second-round win in Melbourne on Wednesday over Karolina Muchova, a 2023 French Open finalist.
“I think it was a little inevitable, but I think the competitor in me just wanted to keep it going until the end,” Osaka said. “I just hope I can figure it out and figure out how to get healthy in time,” she added, before the tour heads to events in Indian Wells and Miami in March.
On Friday, a coach visited Osaka – a former No. 1 ranked player who owns a total of four Grand Slam titles – during the changeover while she was leading 6-5. The coach examined Osaka's abdominal area, gave her a pill to take, and play resumed.
Just before the tiebreak began, Osaka went to the coaches' box on court and spoke briefly with Patrick Mouratoglou.
After Bencic succeeded in achieving the tie-break with a score of 7-6 (3), and obtained four of the last five points through unforced errors from Osaka, the chair referee announced that the match had ended after 57 minutes “due to injury.”
The two players hugged on the touchline, and Osaka left the court. She won the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021, and the US Open in 2018 and 2020.
“I hope she will be fine soon and can play for the rest of the season,” said Bencic, who won singles gold for Switzerland at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Bencic, who is also a mother, drew a heart on the lens of a television camera next to the pitch and wrote: “I wish you a speedy recovery, mom.”
Bencic's next match will be in the fourth round against 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff or 2021 US Open runner-up Leyla Fernandez, who were scheduled to face each other on Friday night.
“I'll watch a little bit, if I can, but I think I'll do the cool-down period and try to focus on my recovery,” Bencic said.
Bencic, who returned to competition last October after giving birth to her first child, had never gone beyond the fourth round during her 11 previous appearances at Melbourne Park.
She lost at that stage a year ago to two-time champion Aryna Sabalenka.
