Osaka becomes just the fourth women’s top-two seed to lose her opening match at Wimbledon in the Open Era
Tuesday 2 July 2019 12:04, UK
Two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka crashed out of Wimbledon in the first round after suffering a shock defeat against unseeded world No 39 Yulia Putintseva.
Osaka, who lost her world No 1 ranking to Ashleigh Barty last month, was beaten 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 by Kazakhstan's Putintseva on Centre Court and has now failed to reach the second week at the last two Grand Slams.
The reigning US Open and Australian Open champion made 38 unforced errors, compared with seven from Putintseva, in a lacklustre performance as she suffered her first opening-round defeat at a Grand Slam since the 2017 French Open.
"Can I leave?" she asked the moderator after several short answers during her press conference. "I feel like I'm about to cry."
She had only played one warm-up tournament before Wimbledon at the Birmingham Classic, where she also lost against Putintseva in straight sets.
Osaka led by an early break in the first set but could not hold onto her advantage as Putintseva won a tiebreak to gain control.
Having saved two break points in the opening game of the second set, the Japanese player was then broken in consecutive service games as Putintseva celebrated one of the biggest victories of her career.
Elsewhere, seventh seed Simona Halep overcame a tough battle against Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich to win 6-4 7-5 and progress to the second round.
The former world No 1, who reached the semi-finals in 2014, trailed 5-2 in the second set and saved a set point at 5-4 as she sealed victory with a run of five successive games.
Halep suffered a nasty-looking slip during the first set and called for the trainer prior to the start of the second.
The Romanian said: "It's OK in this moment. But I need to do the treatment. I feel it a little bit. I think it's a little bit stretched, the muscle behind the knee, and also the Achilles.
"Hopefully it's nothing dangerous and I can recover until the next match."
Meanwhile, Karolina Pliskova built on her Eastbourne title at the weekend with a 6-2 7-6 (7-4) victory against world No 101 Zhu Lin.
The Czech third seed has only reached the second week at Wimbledon once before, in last year's run to the fourth round, and prior to that had lost in the second round five years in a row.
Elina Svitolina also made swift progress as she defeated Australia's Daria Gavrilova 7-5 6-0 in 66 minutes, while Madison Keys breezed past Luksika Kumkhum 6-3 6-2.
Marketa Vondrousova was unable to produce a repeat of her run to the French Open final as the 20-year-old 16th seed lost 6-4 6-4 to America's Madison Brengle.
Danish 14th seed Caroline Wozniacki was 5-4 up against Sara Sorribes Tormo in the opening set before the Spaniard retired but 23rd seed Caroline Garcia was knocked out 6-4 6-0 against China's Zhang Shuai.
