2024-01-11 07:27:14
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 23 minutes ago, Updated now
Naomi Osaka. WILLIAM WEST / AFP
For her return to the Grand Slam, the Japanese will face the French n°1 in the first round in Melbourne.
The Japanese Naomi Osaka, former world No.1 and four-time Grand Slam winner, will face French No.1 Caroline Garcia in the first round of the Australian Open for her return to the Grand Slam after giving birth to her first child.
Osaka (26 years old), crowned in New York in 2018 and 2020 and in Melbourne in 2019 and 2021, has not played in a Grand Slam since the 2022 US Open. Her daughter Shai was born last July.
According to the draw made on Thursday, the theoretical semi-finals of the women’s draw would pit world No.1 Iga Swiatek against world No.3 Elena Rybakina on the one hand, and title holder and world No.2 Aryna Sabalenka against world No.4 Coco Gauff on the other hand.
Before that, Swiatek will have a lot to do from the start, since she will launch her Australian fortnight against a former winner in Melbourne, the American Sofia Kenin, titled in 2020 and now 38th in the world. It is then at least a former finalist of the Australian Open who awaits her: either the German Angelique Kerber, returning from maternity like Osaka, ex-world No.1 and three times Grand Slam winner, including one in Melbourne in 2016, the American Danielle Collins, beaten in the final in 2022.
Sabalenka’s entry promises to be less tricky, with a player from qualifying in the first round, then a second or the Romanian Ana Bogdan, 66th in the world.
Rybakina, outgoing finalist, inherited a tricky first round, with the Czech Karolina Pliskova, former short-lived world No.1 now 37th.
Gauff, crowned for the first time in a Grand Slam at the US Open last September, will start against the Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (67th).
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