Tennis: injured Noami Osaka ends her season, “a very difficult decision to make”

Osaka will not finish the Asian tour, nor the 2024 season. The Japanese, back on the circuit since January, has ended her year, the organizers of the WTA 250 tournament in Hong Kong announced on Monday (October 28-November 3). ), which she had planned to participate in.

Quadruple winner of Grand Slam tournaments and ex-world No.1, “Naomi Osaka was forced to withdraw” from the Asian tournament “due to an injury, which unfortunately puts an end to her 2024 season,” indicated the organizers on

No semi-finals on the clock in 2024

An MRI taken in Beijing revealed a “rupture of the abdominal muscles”, the 56th player in the world, who also suffers from a vertebra, told the Kyodo agency. Aged 27, Osaka had to retire in early October in the round of 16 of the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing, due to back pain. She has already had to give up playing in the Tokyo tournament, which begins on Monday, and will therefore skip the BJK Cup (November 13-20) in Malaga, where she was to represent Japan at the end of her season.

“I played a lot of tournaments this year, so not playing (in Hong Kong, Editor’s note) and obviously at the BJK Cup was a very difficult decision to make,” Osaka said. But “honestly, I loved” the past year, she added.