AAP Tennis

Osaka beats Garcia in Aus Open repeat

By AAP Newswire

Feb 13, 2024

Japan's Naomi Osaka returns to France's Caroline Garcia during her victory in Qatar. -AP

Former world number one Naomi Osaka avenged her first-round defeat to Caroline Garcia at the Australian Open by beating the French world number 21, 7-5 6-4 in Doha.

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Osaka, who returned to action in Melbourne just six months after giving birth to her daughter Shai, will play Croatia's Petra Martic in the second round of the Qatar Open.

Also on Monday, Martic beat Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands in a third set tiebreaker.

Top seed Iga Swiatek eased past Sorana Cirstea, of Romania, for the loss of just two games but Britain's Emma Raducanu was beaten 0-6 6-7 (8-6) by Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina in the opening round.

Emma Raducanu failed to win a game in the first set against Anhelina Kalinina. (AP PHOTO)

Raducanu had been granted a wild card for the first WTA 1000 event of the season in Doha, but slipped to a fourth defeat in seven matches since returning from injury.

The British number seven rallied in the second set after a one-sided first set, which lasted little over half an hour.

Raducanu saved two match points at 6-5 down to force a tiebreaker and was one point away from squaring the match while leading 6-5.

But world number 30 Kalinina held her nerve and will now face Latvia's eighth seed Jelena Ostapenko.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press