Naomi returns: Osaka takes wild card into San Jose

Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka will make her return to the WTA tour in the first week of August at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose. The tournament is a WTA 500 event and takes place from August 1 to August 7.

San Jose was the first WTA-level event Osaka competed when she qualified for the main draw in 2014. She went on to reach the second round after an upset win over then-world No 19 Samantha Stosur.

This will be Osaka’s first tournament since Roland-Garros, where she was beaten in the first round by American Amanda Anisimova, who had also ended the Japanese player’s Australian Open defence in the third round.

Osaka joins a stellar field in San Jose which includes six of the world’s top 10 including Maria Sakkari, Paula Badosa, Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka and Danielle Collins. This will be her first appearance in the tournament since 2017.

Osaka is one of two wild cards announced for the event, the other one being former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu.

Osaka had pulled out of the entire grass court season, including Wimbledon, due to her left Achilles tendon injury, which hampered her clay court season as well.

The 24-year-old reached the Miami Open final in March to move back inside the world’s top 40. She has played only six events in the first half of 2022 as she continued to expand her business portfolio with a new sports agency and a new media venture among several other partnerships.

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