The word no. 1 Naomi Osaka after making her return to the competitive action at Dubai Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships, lost to Kristina Mladenovic in the second round of the event.
Osaka, who last week parted ways with her coach Sascha Bajin following her win of the Australian Open in Melbourne; struggled badly during her service game against the world no. 67 Kristina Mladenovic.
Mladenovic said, “It means a lot o me. It means I am capable of defeating the great players. I did that in the past on this very court.”
Up next, Mladenovic will play against Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro who moved up in the tournament after defeating Chinese player Shuai Zhang.
Osaka’s defeat in the round during which many other great players proceeded ahead in the tournament, was the most shocking event of the day.
Australian Open runner-up Petra Kvitova managed to defeat her Czech compatriot Katerina Siniakova 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4. As for the third seed Simona Halep she advanced by a 7-6(4) 6-4 win over the Canadian wild card Eugenie Bouchard.
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