Tennis at Tokyo 2020: Osaka knocked out; no Sumit-Saina in mixed doubles

It was an ending neither Osaka nor the organisers wanted, but Vondrousova, a former French Open finalist, played a clinical match – 18 winners, 10 enforced errors and four aces – to oust the face of the Tokyo Games.

Japan's Naomi Osaka crashes out after losing her third round against Marketa Vondrousova of Czech Republic.

Naomi Osaka’s straight-sets 1-6, 4-6 defeat to Marketa Vondrousova headlined a second consecutive day of carnage in women’s singles at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. In addition to the four-time Major winner, French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova and Roland Garros semifinalist Maria Sakkari were all shown the door on Tuesday.

It was an ending neither Osaka nor the organisers wanted, but Vondrousova, a former French Open finalist, played a clinical match – 18 winners, 10 enforced errors and four aces – to oust the face of the Tokyo Games, who lit the Olympic cauldron in last week’s opening ceremony.

“I'm disappointed in every loss, but I feel like this one sucks more than the others,” said Osaka, after the defeat. “I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this. I think it’s maybe because I haven’t played in the Olympics before and for the first year [it] was a bit much.”

READ|

The World no.2, who hadn’t played since withdrawing from the French Open citing mental health issues, did not confirm when and where she will be playing her next Tour-level tournament.

Pliskova’s defeat to Italy’s Camila Giorgi was as lopsided as Osaka’s, with the Czech losing 4-6, 2-6. Sakkari and Krejcikova fell after winning the first set, to Elina Svitolina (7-5, 3-6, 4-6) and Belinda Bencic (6-1, 2-6, 3-6) respectively.

READ|

Among men, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Kei Nishikori, Diego Schwartzman and Karen Khachanov progressed into the third round, but there were defeats for Wimbledon semifinalist Hubert Hurkacz (to Brit Liam Broady 5-7, 6-3, 3-6) and Australian Open semifinalist Aslan Karatsev (to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 5-7, 6-4, 3-6).

No Saina-Sumit

The Indian tennis challenge at Tokyo 2020 officially ended after the Sania Mirza-Sumit Nagal combine failed to make it to the 16-team mixed doubles competition. With a combined ranking of 153 going into the Olympics, the Indian duo needed a miracle, and they duly fell short of the ranking cut-off for an event which saw a team with a combined ranking of 49 qualify in 16th place.