The Australian Open champion opened her 2022 season with a
6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Alize Cornet on Tuesday in one of the Summer Set of
tournaments in Melbourne.
Osaka returned to Rod Laver Arena for the first time since
winning the Australian Open title in February. It was also her first tour-level
match since a third-round loss to Leylah Fernandez at the U.S. Open in
September.
After that loss, Osaka said: “I honestly don’t know when I’m
going to play my next tennis match.”
She took time off earlier last year, a mental health break
that began when she withdrew from the French Open before her second-round
match. She also sat out Wimbledon, then returned for the Tokyo Olympics, where
she lit the cauldron during the opening ceremony.
Osaka said she set herself one major goal for this year, and
that was to enjoy the game.
“I’m the type of person that cared a little bit too much
about the results and the rankings and I need to find a way to enjoy the game
again because that’s the reason I played the game in the first place,” she
said.
After taking time to hang out with friends and family, she
said slowly started to regain the feeling of love for the game.
“It’s not like it ever completely went away but it got
overshadowed by a lot of emotions that I was feeling just by constantly playing
year after year,” Osaka said.
Osaka was up a set and a break before Cornet went on a
five-game roll to force the match into a third set. The former No. 1-ranked
Osaka got just over 38% of her first serves into play, had eight double-faults
and 57 unforced errors, but countered that with 51 winners. She faced only
three break points.
“I feel like I made a lot of unforced errors today,” the
top-seeded Osaka said, “but I expected that because it is the first match and I
was really nervous.”
Travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic mean
there’s a crammed schedule of events Down Under before the Australian Open
starts on Jan. 17.
There are three events being played this week in Melbourne
as part of Tennis Australia’s Summer Set of tournaments — two WTA tournaments
and one ATP. In Adelaide, there is a joint ATP and WTA tournament this week.
The ATP Cup is being played in Sydney.
Jessica Pegula, the top seed in the other women’s Summer Set
tournament in Melbourne, lost to Irina-Camelia Begu 7-6 (6), 6-3 in the first
round.
Pegula, who reached the quarterfinals at last year’s
Australian Open, led 5-3 and had set points before Begu rallied for victory.
In the men’s tournament in Melbourne, Facundo Bagnis beat
former No. 1 Andy Murray 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, saving 11 of 13 break points. He will
next play third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov. Murray, a five-time finalist at the
Australian Open, received a wild-card entry to play at the season’s opening
major.
In Adelaide, 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek opened
her Adelaide International title defense with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Daria
Saville, who was known as Daria Gavrilova before her recent marriage.
In earlier matches, American teenager Coco Gauff beat
Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway 6-2, 6-1 to set up a second-round match against
top-ranked Ash Barty, 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin beat Lucia
Bronzetti 7-5, 7-5, and Anastasia Gasanova beat eighth-seeded Elina Svitolina
5-7, 6-4, 6-3.