TWO-TIME women’s singles champion Naomi Osaka has pulled out of the Australian Open ahead of her scheduled third round match today due to an abdominal injury.
Osaka’s opponent, Australian Maddison Inglis, has a walkover into the fourth round.
Japanese 16th seed Osaka, the 2019 and 2021 Australian Open champion, said on social media that her body needed attention following her previous match against Sorana Cirstea.
She later said at the tournament she had been carrying the injury and had hoped to play through the pain.
“I thought maybe if I gave myself a break before my match today, I would be able to handle it, but I warmed up, and it got a lot worse,” Osaka said.
“I definitely have to do more tests, and obviously I think coming back from pregnancy, my body changed quite a lot. So this is something I have to be really cautious of.”
Also today, Novak Djokovic escaped the heat and defeated Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3 6-4 7-6 at the Australian Open to reach the fourth round and add another line in the record book during his bid for a standalone 25th Grand Slam title.
With his 102nd match victory at Melbourne, the evergreen Serb equalled six-times champion Roger Federer’s record at the year’s first major and also became the first player to secure 400 wins at the Grand Slams.
In women’s singles, world number two Iga Swiatek was given a huge scare by Russian Anna Kalinskaya before earning a 6-1 1-6 6-1 victory today and advancing to the fourth round in Melbourne.
Swiatek recovered well from her shaky second set to seal the win in one hour and 44 minutes, as she continued to build momentum in her hunt for a career Grand Slam.
The second-seeded Pole was at her ruthless best as she raced to a 5-1 lead with a double break and secured the opening set in only 24 minutes to turn the screws on an off-colour Kalinskaya, who received treatment on her lower back during the break.
Meanwhile, Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka bowed out of his last Australian Open today, the three-times Grand Slam winner losing 7-6(5) 2-6 6-4 6-4 to American Taylor Fritz and soaking up warm applause as a much‑loved former champion.
The 40-year-old, who made his major breakthrough in Melbourne by winning the 2014 title before adding trophies at the French Open and the U.S. Open in subsequent years, had announced that 2026 would be his farewell season.
After battling past Laslo Djere in his opener and edging a five-set marathon against a much-younger Arthur Gea in the last round, Wawrinka mounted another valiant effort but ran out of gas against American ninth seed Fritz.
Agency report