Naomi Osaka will be playing on grass for the first time in five years, and her schedule for the summer is now very clear after she was granted another wild card.
Preparations for Wimbledon will intensify following the conclusion of the 2024 French Open in early June, and top tennis stars have begun signing up for the warm-up tournaments on the lawns.
In recent weeks, Emma Raducanu and Iga Swiatek have unveiled their schedules for the grass-court swing. Japanese star Osaka also revealed where she would play in June, first announcing she accepted a wild card at the star-student Berlin Open.
As of Tuesday, May 28th, Osaka has accepted a second wild card into the Libema Open, a WTA 250 tournament that will be held in the Netherlands. The tournament announced the news through its official X page (also known as Twitter).
The Libema Open will kick off on June 10th and features a packed lineup spearheaded by World No. 5 Jessica Pegula. Major champions in the field include 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu, and four-time Grand Slam doubles champion Elise Mertens.
Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova will return to defend her crown. The champion of the 2024 edition will receive 250 points and a generous paycheck of $35,250.
This will be a very important stretch in Osaka's season as she plots to return to the world's Top 100 in the coming weeks. She promised to play in an extensive schedule.
The last time she set foot on grass was in 2019, when she played in Birmingham and Wimbledon, losing to Yulia Putintseva in back-to-back matches.
She has a lifetime record of 18-14 on the surface. Her best results at the top level include reaching the Nottingham semifinals in 2018 and the third round of Wimbledon in successive years in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
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