Naomi Osaka had herself an interesting Australian Open. She entered her first match as if she were more ready for a fashion show than to play tennis. Her second-round match against Sorana Cirstea ended poorly, with the Romanian clearly miffed at the Japanese player for making loud noises at high-stress moments.
Now, Osaka decided to withdraw before her third-round match against Maddison Inglis started. While not truly citing an injury, Osaka certainly implied that. She stated, "something my body needs." The words will have some confused.
Osaka could mean something mental as well as physical. She appeared affected by the crowd reaction when she had her on-court post-match interview after playing Cirstea. The two players shared a frosty handshake, and then Osaka basically said she was sorry, not sorry about constantly saying "come on!' to herself.
Naomi Osaka's withdrawal from the 2026 Australian Open comes with some curious timing
This sometimes happened between Cirstea's first and second serves, and was extremely poor form by the Japanese player. Tennis has etiquette and class, but the Japanese player wasn't going about her business that way. The audience in her interview clearly wasn't buying what she was smugly saying.
Maybe Naomi Osaka is injured, though she didn't appear hampered in the Cirstea match. No news reports surfaced that she was seeking treatment, either. The timing of her withdrawal makes it seem as if Osaka wasn't mentally prepared to face a crowd that might not have been on her side after her comments toward Cirstea.
She posted on Instagram when announcing she had withdrawn, "I've had to make the difficult decision to withdraw to address something my body needs attention for after my last match. I was so excited to keep going, and this run meant the most to me, so having to stop here breaks my heart but I can't risk doing any further damage. Thanks for all the love and support. I'm so grateful everyone embraced me so much."
Not everyone did.
To be fair, Osaka has been one of the more outspoken players about how important mental health is. She has struggled with that in the past, as many people have. She feels more than many players, and that has helped build her popularity. She is one of us while being a lot more skilled at tennis than we are.
But she also eschewed Sorana Cirstea's feelings during Osaka's match with the Romanian. Celebrating points is perfectly fine, of course. Knowing that making loud noises could throw off an opponent's rhythm and then making those noises is classless.
Let's hope whatever Naomi Osaka's injury is heals quickly. Many might wonder if she truly is hurt, though. She might have simply been emotionally affected by the pushback she received from how she acted in the Sorana Cirstea match.