Abdominal injury rules Naomi Osaka out of Stuttgart Open

Image Credits: Twitter/@AustralianOpen

World number one Naomi Osaka has been ruled of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart due to an abdominal injury.

The news came a few hours after Osaka staged a miraculous comeback to seal a narrow  6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) win over Donna Vekic of Croatia in a last-eight clash of the women's singles event that lasted two hours and 18 minutes.

Osaka was due to take on eighth-seed Anett Kontaveit in the semifinals of the tournament. However, the withdrawal means the Estonian tennis star will now receive a walkover into the final of the ongoing WTA  tournament. 

Reflecting on the same, the top-ranked star revealed that she had to roll out of bed after picking up the injury during her quarterfinal clash. 

“I felt it yesterday at the start of the match. She was asking me in the third set why my serve dropped and it was actually for that reason," the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) quoted Osaka as saying. 

“I wanted to wait to see if I could play. I woke up today and I had to roll out of bed, then I decided I wasn’t able to play," she added. 

Kontaveit will now lock horns with the winner of the other semi-final clash between Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova and Netherland's Kiki Bertens for the title.