Tennis star Naomi Osaka has released a shock statement confirming she has withdrawn from the Australian Open due to injury.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Osaka has been one of the most talked about players at the Australian Open this year as the Japanese tennis star has had a turbulent start to the competition.
After a first round win over Antonia Ruzic, the 28-year-old competed against Romania's Sorana Cirstea on Thursday, picking up, winning two of the three sets of the 6-3 4-6 6-2 match.
Following the match, Osaka made some controversial comments about her opponent, forcing her to later apologise ahead of her third round match against Australia's Maddison Inglis.
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But now, the tennis star has confirmed that she will not be able to continue in the competition, revealing that she has withdrawn less than two hours before her match against Inglis was scheduled to begin.
After completing warm-ups ahead of her match with Inglis, Osaka, who was seeded 16th, made the difficult decision not to continue with of the match scheduled to take place around 10:00 AM GMT.
The decision means that Australian qualifier Inglish will now advance to the last 16.
Confirming the news, Osaka posted on Instagram: "I've had to make the difficult decision to withdraw to address something my body needs attention for after my last match.
"I was so excited to keep going, and this run meant the most to me, so having to stop here breaks my heart, but I can't risk doing any further damage so I can get back on the court.
"Thanks for all the love and support...I'm so grateful everyone embraced me so much. And thank you to my whole team for always having my back and the tournament organisers for being so kind."
Opening up about her injury, she told media via Tennis Australia : "It's an injury I've had a couple of times before, and I thought I could push through it.
"I played my last match with some pain, and I thought maybe if I gave myself a break before my match today, I would be able to handle it, but I warmed up, and it got a lot worse.
"I definitely have to do more tests, and obviously, I think coming back from pregnancy, my body has changed quite a lot. So this is something I have to be really cautious of."
Osaka has now withdrawn from her last two tournaments after also pulling out of her final event last year at the Japan Open.
She was set to compete in a quarter-final match with Jaqueline Cristian but was forced to withdraw after suffering a left thigh injury in a three-set win over Suzan Lames.
Topics: Naomi Osaka, Australian Open, Tennis, Injury
Ben McCrum