Brisbane International: Naomi Osaka knocked out in second round to Karolina Pliskova in first comeback tournament | Tennis News
Naomi Osaka’s first tournament appearance in more than two years has ended with a second-round defeat to 16th seed Karolina Pliskova at the Brisbane International.
Following an opening-round win over Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch on Monday, Osaka looked to keep her momentum going against the Czech world No 39 but was ultimately outlasted 3-6 7-6 (4) 6-4.
In a battle of two former world No 1s, Osaka exploded out of the gates to claim the first set before Pliskova began to find her footing in the second.
After surviving an early break point, Pliskova capitalised on her serve to take control of the match, going on to win 92 per cent of her first-service points in the set.
Osaka continued to threaten throughout the final set, but was unable to make the most of her remaining opportunities in the narrow loss.
Osaka and Karolina Pliskova shake hands after the latter’s victory in round two
Osaka returned to the court on Monday for the first time since withdrawing from the Pan Pacific Trophy with a knee injury in September 2021. She became a mother for the first time in July.
But despite her comeback tournament not progressing beyond the second round, Osaka nonetheless posted afterwards on X “that was really fun though”.
Elsewhere, Australia’s Daria Saville came agonisingly close to upsetting 11th seed Anastasia Potapova in a 6-4 3-6 6-4 defeat.
The world No 176 dropped the first set but battled back to convincingly claim the second in front of a raucous home crowd.
However Potapova showed plenty of her own fight in the decider, eventually wrapping up the result in two hours and 52 minutes.
Meanwhile, sixth seed Veronika Kudermetova cruised to a 6-2 6-3 win over world No 73 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
The Brisbane International is live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix this week
