ABU DHABI – Naomi Osaka said she was trying not to feel “like a failure”, after her comeback hit another roadblock with a 7-5, 6-0 defeat by former world No. 7 Danielle Collins in the first round of the Abu Dhabi Open on Feb 6.

“I say some pretty harsh words about myself. I know the word but, if I say it, it sounds really bad. I felt a little like a ‘failure’, but I don’t want to be too harsh,” the 26-year-old told AFP in the United Arab Emirates capital after her defeat.

The Japanese star returned in January following a 15-month absence from the tour, during which she gave birth to her first child Shai, but has been handed some tricky draws and lost three of her four matches so far this campaign.

The former world No. 1 also lost in straight sets in the doubles later in the day, alongside Ons Jabeur, but felt that her performance helped her shake off her earlier disappointment.

“I’m less confident, but I’m not too unconfident to think that I can’t play really good tennis. I just need to get through a really tough match and then sort of acknowledge that that’s going to happen quite a couple of times,” four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka said.

Despite a close opening set that witnessed supreme serving from both players, Osaka struggled in her service games in the second set and failed to convert any of her six break-point opportunities to fall to the qualifier in 1hr 23min.

“Everyone around me is telling me I’m playing well and I don’t think I’m playing bad. I just need to believe in myself more and, as soon as I got broken, my belief dipped a lot,” she said.

Osaka will next head to Doha for the Qatar Open and said she “might have to play Dubai” but is unsure as yet.

Meanwhile, Collins improved her head-to-head record against Osaka to 2-3 and will take on top seed Elena Rybakina in the second round.

The 30-year-old American has announced this will be her final season on tour, and has herself navigated some brutal draws in her first five weeks of 2024.

At the Australian Open, she beat three-time Major winner Angelique Kerber before falling to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the second round. She has been handed two more Grand Slam champions in Abu Dhabi in the form of Osaka and 2022 Wimbledon winner Rybakina.

Collins said wanting to live a normal life away from the constant travel and the daily grind on tour was the main reason behind her decision to retire.

“At this point, I feel like I’m ready for the next chapter and I’m really excited about it. I needed to have an end date and it gives my family and friends the ability to come support me in some final tournaments, that will be really special,” she said.

Hoping to prolong her career is former Wimbledon and French Open champion Simona Halep, whose appeal against a four-year doping suspension was heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Feb 7.

The 32-year-old Romanian is in Lausanne for the three-day proceedings that she hopes will see her provisional suspension lifted.

Halep has been banned since October 2022 after testing positive for roxadustat, a banned drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells, at the US Open that year.

Tennis anti-doping authorities also charged her with another offence in 2023 due to irregularities in her athlete biological passport (ABP), a method designed to monitor different blood parameters over time to reveal potential doping.

Halep has vigorously denied the charges. The former world No. 1 has blamed contaminated licensed supplements for her positive test at the US Open.

She has accused the International Tennis Integrity Agency of charging her with an ABP violation after the group of experts who assessed her profile learnt of her identity.

An independent tribunal accepted her argument that she had taken a contaminated supplement but determined the volume she ingested could not have resulted in the concentration of roxadustat found in her positive sample.

Halep will not make any statement until the proceedings are over, the CAS said. The court said it was unclear when a ruling might be made.

The player told Euronews in December that if the court dismisses her appeal, she could be compelled to retire.

“It’s catastrophic if it’s going to be four years. I don’t know how I will handle it. Probably it will be the end of my career,” she said.
AFP, REUTERS