Indian Wells (United States) (AFP) – Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka got her injury return off to a solid start on Friday, punching her ticket to the third round at Indian Wells with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over qualifier Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva.
The Japanese superstar said she didn’t know what to expect from her 97th-ranked opponent in their first meeting. But more importantly, she wasn’t too sure what to expect from herself in her first match since she pulled out before her Australian Open third-round contest with an abdominal injury. “It wasn’t, like, too positive,” she said of her build-up to Indian Wells. “I was really disappointed (at the Australian Open), because it’s something that I have done to myself before, and I feel like every year I go through that specific injury. Every year I can kind of feel it starting to happen. I was just really disappointed in myself, and then ironically, we were training and I injured myself — I did another injury.”
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“Hopefully, that’s enough injuries for the whole year,” Osaka said. “I’m just grateful to be out here and be playing.”
Osaka got off to a strong start, winning the first four games on the way to a 5-1 lead. But Jimenez Kasintseva won the next three games, breaking Osaka twice to level the set before the 16th-ranked star regrouped. Despite the hiccups, Osaka was pleased to have improved on a disappointing first-round loss to Camila Osorio in the California desert last year in a match she dejectedly called the “worst match I’ve ever played in my life.”
“Last year I didn’t do too well here, so I think I already exceeded the previous year. So I just hope that I can keep going,” she said. To do so she’ll have to get past Colombia’s Osorio, who saved three match points in a 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory over American Iva Jovic.
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