Naomi Osaka extends losing streak as she crashes out in 1st round of Cincinnati Masters

| by Balasz Virag

After losing in San Jose to Coco Gauff and retiring against Kaia Kanepi in Toronto, Naomi Osaka played against Shuai Zhang in the first round of the 2022 Cincinnati Masters.

Previously, the former world number 1 triumphed in 3 out of 5 matches played against Shuai Zhang and so the Chinese player showed that she can play well against Naomi Osaka. In their first round meeting at the 2022 Cincinnati Masters, the 4-time Grand Slam champion hoped to improve her H2H record against Shuai Zhang but her opponent proved to be too good once again.

Naomi Osaka in contention to win Oscar as an executive producer
Naomi Osaka in contention to win Oscar as an executive producer

Zhang started well in the match as she broke her opponent's serve in the first game. Also Osaka managed to get a break point in the first set, but her opponent didn't fold under pressure and so she won the set 6-4 in 34 minutes.

In the second set, Zhang was the first player to break again but Osaka managed to break back in the tenth game and gave herself one more chance to win the match. Yet, Zhang added one more break and won the match 6-4, 7-5 in an hour and 15 minutes and set up a second round clash with Ekaterina Alexandrova.

"Today is just really not a good day" - Osaka following Toronto retirement
"Today is just really not a good day" - Osaka following Toronto retirement

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