Camila Osorio topples Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova also ousted at Indian Wells
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Naomi Osaka of Japan plays a backhand against Camila Osorio of Colombia in their first-round match at Indian Wells.
PHOTO: AFP
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INDIAN WELLS – Naomi Osaka admitted she was not at her best after she was bundled out of the first round at Indian Wells on March 5, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Camila Osorio in her first event since her injury exit at the Australian Open.
The former world No. 1 Japanese star, now ranked 56th in the world, looked rusty against the 53rd-ranked Colombian, struggling to find the range on her powerful groundstrokes on a chilly night in the California desert.
“There were certain things that felt extremely off because I could only start to practise serving after a certain amount of time and stuff like that. So given the situation, it wasn’t that terrible. I don’t feel like I played well at all, but I had chances to be in the match,” said Osaka.
Osorio, making a return from a lengthy injury break herself, challenged Osaka with an array of drop shots and slices, and gained the lone break of the opening set for a 5-4 lead.
She served it out without a hitch and then broke Osaka to open the second. The latter immediately broke back, but Osorio gained the upper hand with a break in the seventh game.
After Osaka fought off a match point against her own serve Osorio served it out, fighting off four break points to seal it with a stinging forehand winner.
“It’s crazy for me, a dream come true,” said Osorio, who pulled out of last week’s event in Merida, Mexico, with an abdominal injury.
She had never won a match at Indian Wells, and became the first Colombian woman to beat a former world No. 1.
Osaka, who returned from a 15-month break in 2024 after giving birth to daughter Shai in 2023, reached her first final since 2022 in Auckland, but retired from the title match with an abdominal injury. Denmark’s Clara Tauson, who lifted the ASB Classic, faces Osorio next.
Back for the Australian Open, Osaka was forced to retire from her third-round match with an abdominal strain.
“It just feels like a little bump in the road. I’ll be back in Miami and, hopefully, I’ll have way more serve practice under my belt and things like that,” the four-time Grand Slam champion added.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, on the comeback trail seven months after giving birth to her son Petr, also fell in the first round.
France’s 70th-ranked Varvara Gracheva beat the Czech 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, but the 24-year-old was full of admiration for her 34-year-old opponent, who lifted the trophy at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014.
“If you let me step back a little bit, I really want to congratulate her, because she had a child quite recently, and I’m so happy that she now has the role of a mother and a tennis player, which is very demanding. It’s very inspiring for sports, athletes, women – it’s just amazing,” Gracheva said.
She lined up a second-round clash with ninth-seeded Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian who became the youngest-ever WTA 1000 champion in Dubai in February.
In another match, French veteran Caroline Garcia beat US wild card Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-4 to line up a second-round meeting with second-seeded defending champion Iga Swiatek. AFP
