Naomi Osaka’s first match look in additional than two years has ended with a second-round defeat to sixteenth seed Karolina Pliskova on the Brisbane Worldwide.
Following an opening-round win over Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch on Monday, Osaka appeared to maintain her momentum going towards the Czech world No 39 however was finally outlasted 3-6 7-6 (4) 6-4.
In a battle of two former world No 1s, Osaka exploded out of the gates to assert the primary set earlier than Pliskova started to seek out her footing within the second.
After surviving an early break level, Pliskova capitalised on her serve to take management of the match, happening to win 92 per cent of her first-service factors within the set.
Osaka continued to threaten all through the ultimate set, however was unable to take advantage of her remaining alternatives within the slim loss.
Osaka and Karolina Pliskova shake arms after the latter’s victory in spherical two
Osaka returned to the court docket on Monday for the primary time since withdrawing from the Pan Pacific Trophy with a knee harm in September 2021. She turned a mom for the primary time in July.
However regardless of her comeback match not progressing past the second spherical, Osaka nonetheless posted afterwards on X “that was really fun though”.
Elsewhere, Australia’s Daria Saville got here agonisingly near upsetting eleventh seed Anastasia Potapova in a 6-4 3-6 6-4 defeat.
The world No 176 dropped the primary set however battled again to convincingly declare the second in entrance of a raucous residence crowd.
Nonetheless Potapova confirmed loads of her personal combat within the decider, ultimately wrapping up the end in two hours and 52 minutes.
In the meantime, sixth seed Veronika Kudermetova cruised to a 6-2 6-3 win over world No 73 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
The Brisbane Worldwide is reside on Sky Sports activities Foremost Occasion and Sky Sports activities Combine this week
