Cincinnati (AFP) – WTA Montreal tournament champion Victoria Mboko and beaten finalist Naomi Osaka officially withdrew on Friday from the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open in decisions openly telegraphed after their Thursday night final in Canada. Mboko, the 18-year-old Canadian who electrified Montreal with her run to a first WTA title, cited the wrist injury she suffered in the semi-finals while four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka blamed a “schedule change” for her absence. Cincinnati tournament officials said the pair had received byes into the second round due to their performances at the previous event.
The withdrawals vaulted four lucky losers from qualifying into the first round of the main draw of the last major event prior to the August 25 start of the US Open. After defeating Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win the Montreal title, Mboko revealed that the swelling in her wrist had been bad enough on Thursday morning to prompt her to have an MRI exam before the evening final.
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“I woke up this morning, and I actually had my wrist a little bit swollen from (Wednesday’s) fall,” she said. “We quickly went to the hospital for an MRI and an X-ray before I came to the courts to practice.” Mboko said she and her team eventually “got the green light that nothing too serious was going on in the wrist.” But she said Thursday night that she expected to give Cincinnati a miss.
“I’m not planning on playing Cincinnati at the moment. I just want to take care of my wrist a little bit right now,” she said. “It’s just very close and sudden for me to go there and play again (in), like, two days. I think I’m just going to sit out on that one and prepare for the upcoming tournaments.” Osaka was less definite, but said she was “teeter-tottering.”
“It’s going to be interesting to see, yeah, what my next match is and how I’m going to play,” the former world number one said.
© 2024 AFP
