Naomi Osaka out of Wimbledon

Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from Wimbledon and will thus skip the entirety of the grass-court season.

The 24-year-old posted on social media that her “achilles still isn’t right” and would be back at SW19 “next time”.

Suffering with the problem for some weeks, the four-time Grand Slam champion was knocked out of Roland-Garros in the first round, losing 7-5, 6-4 to Amanda Anisimova – the same opponent who beat her in the third round of the Australian Open back in January.

Osaka had said during the French Open that she was motivated to play by ranking points on offer – meaning that Wimbledon this year was less attractive to her.

“I feel like if I play Wimbledon without points, it’s more like an exhibition,” she said in a press conference. “I know this isn’t true, right? But my brain just like feels that way. Whenever I think like something is like an exhibition, I just can’t go at it 100%.

“I didn’t even make my decision yet, but I’m leaning more towards not playing given the current circumstances, but, you know, that might change.”

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