The Japanese tennis player and two-time Australian Open champion, Naomi Osaka, will not participate in the next edition of the tournament, the organizers announced this Sunday on their social networks without specifying the reason.
"Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the Australian Open. We will miss her," said the organizers of the competition that will start on January 16 in Melbourne (southeast Australia).
The 25-year-old former world number one played for the last time last September at the Tokyo Premier, where she withdrew before her second-round match, suffering from abdominal pain and is now ranked 42nd in the world.
At last year's Grand Slam events, Osaka lost in the third round in Melbourne, in the first round at Roland Garros and the US Open and also missed Wimbledon due to an Achilles tendon injury.
Naomi Osaka, the daughter of a Haitian-American father and a Japanese mother, plays in international competitions on behalf of Japan.
The loss of the Japanese in the women's draw joins another as relevant as that of Carlos Alcaraz in the men's. The world number one has also been dropped for this edition of the Australian Open after being injured in training.
