Naomi Osaka is an unseeded player at the Cincinnati Open but she still got a first-round bye when the tournament draw was being made due to a rule introduced by the WTA in 2023.
During the 2023 Asian swing, a performance bye was introduced - a rule that rewards players who did well the previous week.
At this past WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal, Osaka made the final before losing to Victoria Mboko. When the Canadian Open started, the Japanese was ranked at No. 49 in the world while Mboko sat at No. 85. Under normal circumstances, they would be far from a seeding in Cincinnati and a first-round bye. But due to their deep run in Canada, both players received a performance bye at the American WTA 1000 tournament.
While Mboko decided to withdraw from Cincinnati due to a right wrist injury, Osaka is intending to play and she will start her campaign by taking on No. 20 seed Linda Noskova in the second round.
Osaka enters Cincinnati with a sour taste in her mouth
Osaka's hopes of landing her first big title since the 2021 Australian Open were brutally squashed after she failed to capitalize on her strong start and allowed Mboko to come back and win 2-6 6-4 6-1.
When asked about her upcomingcampaign at the American WTA 1000 event and whether there was excitement for the upcoming period, the 27-year-old Japanese didn't really sound excited.
"Yeah, I mean, it's definitely going to be really interesting to go to Cincinnati. I don't know. I feel like I'm a little teeter-tottering today. I felt like I could have played better, but I'm not really sure which aspect. I think definitely my serve, but it's going to be interesting to see, yeah, what my next match is and how I'm going to play," Osaka said in her post-Montreal final presser.
It remains to be seen if the Montreal final loss will have a negative mental impact on the former world No. 1 in the Noskova match.
