Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka will play a WTA 125 tournament for the first time in a decade after she accepted a wild card into next week’s L’Open 35 de Saint-Malo.
The tournament announced Naomi Osaka as a late addition in a social media post on Thursday, saying the former World No. 1 is ready to “make some noise” in her debut.
After a lengthy training block on clay in France with her coach Patrick Mouratoglou — during which she confessed to the Tennis Majors website that she felt “stronger” and was “ready to grind it out if [she] had to” — Osaka lost in the first round of the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open on Tuesday to Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti in three sets, her first match action in a month after losing in the fourth round of the Miami Open to Paolini.
WTA rules allow players ranked No. 11 or lower to compete in a WTA 125 event during the second week of a Grand Slam or mandatory WTA 1000 tournament, provided they have already been eliminated from the latter.
Osaka was runner-up at a WTA 125 event in Hua Hin, Thailand in November of 2015, when she was an 18-year-old ranked No. 203. That was her only previous appearance at a WTA 125 tournament. But she has made the decision to reappear at the level in search of more consistent match play on a surface she has yet to master.
Osaka has posted a 9-5 match record this season but is just 3-3 since January after an abdominal injury forced her to retire from both the ASB Classic final (against Clara Tauson) and the Australian Open fourth round (against Belinda Bencic).
Main-draw play in Saint-Malo begins on Monday. Ranked No. 55, Osaka is expected to be the No. 2 seed in Saint-Malo behind No. 53 Alycia Parks. Also in the field are No. 1 Varvara Gracheva, Americans Caroline Dolehide and Katie Volynets and former Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria.
Since the tournament’s elevation to WTA 125 status in 2021, past champions have included Beatriz Haddad Maia and Sloane Stephens, while Jasmine Paolini finished as runner-up in the inaugural edition.
Source: https://www.wtatennis.com/news/4254005/osaka-takes-wild-card-to-saint-malo-125
