Cincinnati Open Withdrawals: Mboko and Osaka Withdraw
The National Bank Open finalists, Victoria Mboko and Naomi Osaka, will not participate in the Cincinnati Open. After playing the final in Montreal on Thursday night, it was announced on Friday that both players would be absent from the Cincinnati tournament. Mboko, an 18-year-old Canadian tennis player, who won the first WTA title of his career at a 1000-level event, attributed his decision to an injury to his left wrist. Osaka, who played her first 1000-level final since 2022, was entered with a “scheduling change”, according to the Cincinnati Open.Both Mboko and Osaka, who were not seeded at the Cincinnati Open, had received performance exemptions for the second round after reaching the final of the Canadian Open. Due to the recently extended formats of the 1000-level tournaments and the overlap between the two events, both would have had to play their first-round match on Friday in Cincinnati. With their withdrawals, two first-round matches have been added to Friday’s schedule in Cincinnati, with four lucky losers from qualifying. Cristina Bucsa and Yuan Yue replace Mboko in the draw, and the winner of their match will face the No. 14 seed, Diana Shnaider, in the second round. Solana Sierra and Iva Jovic take Osaka’s place, and the winner of their match will face the No. 20 seed, Linda Noskova. It is expected that both Mboko and Osaka will be seeded at the US Open after their strong performances in Montreal. Mboko, who was outside the top 300 at the beginning of the year, is now ranked number 24, the highest of her career. Osaka is currently ranked number 25, her best position since returning from maternity leave at the beginning of the 2024 season.I just want to take care of my wrist a little bit at the moment, and I think it’s too soon and sudden for me to go there and play again in, like, two days. I think I’m going to skip that one and prepare for the next tournaments.
Victoria Mboko
