Osaka Beaten by Navarro as Gauff goes through


Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka paid the price for too many errors as she lost in straight sets to 19th seed Emma Navarro.

The 26-year-old, playing at Wimbledon for the first time in five years, was beaten 6-4 6-1 in the second round.

The defeat means Osaka has still not progressed beyond the third round at Wimbledon after four attempts.

Competing as a wildcard after the birth of her first child last year, Osaka missed the 2022 tournament through injury and in 2021 took breaks from the sport to deal with mental health issues.

She came through a tight match with world number 53 Diane Parry, of France, on Monday but faded under the Centre Court roof against American Navarro, who made only five unforced errors compared with Osaka's 16.

Four wayward shots in the seventh game gave up a break to love and Osaka was denied an immediate break-back point opportunity when Navarro successfully challenged what appeared to have been a winner from the Japanese.

The second set began with Osaka firing a forehand long when she had an open court, and a feeble drop-volley into the net with her opponent stranded followed as Navarro broke straight away.

Two further breaks of serve for Navarro hastened the end after just 59 minutes to set up a meeting with Russian Diana Shnaider.

"I didn't feel fully confident in myself. I didn't feel like I was playing that well," said Osaka. 

I guess those doubts started trickling in a lot into my game. Obviously the second set wasn't that great

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