Naomi Osaka retired from her opening match on Tuesday at the WTA Toronto Masters with lower back pain, raising injury concerns with the US Open looming.
Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi advanced when Osaka retired trailing 7-6 (7/4), 3-0. Kanepi, a runner-up last week in Washington, needed 71 minutes on court as she broke three times the Japanese star called it quits.
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Kanepi, 37, won their only prior meeting five years ago in three sets at the US Open.
The Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka has played only six matches with a 2-4 record since losing the Miami final in early April to world number one Iga Swiatek.
Reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu of Britain exited in the first round, losing 7-6 (7/0), 6-2 to Italy’s Camila Giorgi.
Defending WTA Canadian champion Giorgi won a combative first set and ran away with the second against the 19-year-old Englishwoman, whose title defence in New York begins in less than three weeks.
The feisty Italian trailed by a break in both sets but showed her spirit by winning the last six games of the contest.
Giorgi needed just over an hour and three-quarters to advance to the second round over the ninth seed who broke into the ranking top 10 less than a month ago.
Raducanu had to hold on in a wild opening set, where serve was broken in six of the dozen games played.
The Briton saved a set point in the 12th game to bring on a tiebreaker, but collapsed to lose seven straight points as Giorgi took the set after 71 minutes.
Raducanu was broken three times in the second set as Giorgi finished off her victory.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
