Paris (AFP)
World No. 2 Naomi Osaka, who had not played on the WTA circuit since her withdrawal before the 2nd round at Roland Garros for psychological reasons, won the poster for the 2nd round of the Cincinnati tournament on Wednesday at the expense of the 'American Coco Gauff (24th) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
"It had been a very long time (since I had not played in front of so many audiences) ... I had a rather complicated year, I changed my state of mind and even if I had lost I would not have not felt like a loser because there is a lot to learn from every game. There is so much going on in the world that waking me up in the morning is in itself a victory, "said the 23-year-old Japanese.
She was making her return to the WTA circuit - after losing in the round of 16 at the Tokyo Olympics - since her withdrawal at Roland Garros where she had psychologically cracked by incriminating in particular her obligations to participate in press conferences.
Osaka, finalist last year in Cincinnati (she had withdrawn before the final) and exempted from the first round, will face the American Bernarda Pera (83rd) or the Swiss Jill Teichmann (65th).
To Gauff, she lost the first set by offering a break to her 17-year-old opponent at 4-4 and appeared to be heading for loss when she gave up her face-off at 1-1 in the second.
But she immediately resumed Gauff's serve to return to 2-2 before making another break to break away 5-3 and serve for the set.
She then raised her level of play and clearly dominated the decisive round by making the entry break to break away 2-0 and remain imperial on her throw-in until the end.
She lost only one point on her serve in the entire set and won four of her five service games white.
© 2021 AFP