Naomi Osaka has indicated she intends to compete at Wimbledon despite retiring from the Bad Homburg Open final with an injury. The 28-year-old, seeded 14th at SW19, withdrew during the second set against Karolina Muchova after 46 minutes on court, with the score at 6-1, 1-0.
Positive Practice Session in London
Since arriving in London, Osaka has completed one practice session and described it as positive. "I could be feeling better, but I could also be feeling worse," she said. "I thought [I had] a good practice. It was kind of windy here compared to Germany and the court is a little different but I think overall it was a good first practice and I'll just see what happens tomorrow with my warm up and then the actual match."
Strong Form Before Final
Osaka had won four consecutive straight-sets matches to reach the final in Bad Homburg. She expressed satisfaction with her mental approach during the tournament. "I would say I was most pleased with my mentality," she added. "Obviously I was able to play all those matches in straights, which is something a little unusual for me because sometimes I get distracted. But if they broke me, I was able to focus right away and try to break them back. So I think that's something that I'm happy about because I worked pretty hard on it and I hope that it'll work here and then obviously transferring back onto hard court."
Past Performance and Outlook
Osaka reached the third round at Wimbledon in 2025, equalling her best performance at the tournament from 2017 and 2018. She faces Elsa Jacquemot in the first round on Monday. Reflecting on injury setbacks, Osaka said: "It doesn't make me nervous, it just makes me sad. Obviously, I was able to get to a final last year. It didn't work out too well. I really wanted to get to another one and this was the one that I've gotten to, but I couldn't play. It just sucked but I have another opportunity to do well here if I try to be as healthy as I can be, so that's kind of my focus now."
