TORONTO — Naomi Osaka withdrew from Tuesday's National Bank Open season opener with a back injury.
Osaka was beating Estonia's Kaia her Kanepi by her 7-6 (4) 3-0, but she withdrew from the match.
Osaka, who entered the tournament, made it past three in either the first round or the second round, including a straight set loss to Coco Gauff in Mubadala's Silicon Valley her Classic last week. I was eliminated from the tournament. It was her first tournament since the French Open as she recovered from an Achilles tendon injury.
Prior to that tournament, she reached the final of her Miami Open in early April. , had their best tournament of the year until losing to top-ranked Iga Swiatek.
Her No. 31 world-ranked Kanepi next faces Spain's No. 8 Garbine Muguruza.
In the other match, No. 10 seed Gauff defeated fellow American Madison Brenglem with her 6-1 6-3 win. China's Zheng Qinwen defeated Canada's Rebecca Marino with her 3-6 7-6 (5) 6-4. Italy's Camila Giorgi defeated No. 9-seeded Emma Raducanu of England 7-6 (0), 6-2. Belgium's Elise Mertens, Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo, Russia's Adjla Tomljanovic, America's Amanda Anisimova and China's Zhang Shuai also advanced.
Osaka suffered from unforced errors, committing four of her five double faults in the first set. She won her first game with the help of Kanepi's three unforced her errors, but her four-time Grand Slam champ went up 2–1 before she won her first game. lost momentum.
Kanepi won 4 of her next 7 matches to go 5-3. From there, Osaka had to fight to miss her two set point chances from Kanepi. A powerful backhand and Kanepi's multiple errors combined allowed Osaka to level the score and take her set to the tiebreaker.
With the tiebreaker on his 3-3 tiebreak, Kanepi stepped up his level of play, taking his four of his next five points and Osaka's shot over the baseline. set to get his point. Kanepi picked up momentum in the second set, taking advantage of Osaka's bad luck with a sharp forehand to fend off the Japanese star.
After hitting an ace, Kanepi finished off with Osaka's powerful serve.
