Tennis – WTA Premier – Stuttgart Tennis Grand Prix – Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, Germany – April 27, 2019 Japan’s Naomi Osaka during a press conference after she withdrew from her semi final match against Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit due to injury REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
(Reuters) – World number one Naomi Osaka has pulled out of Saturday’s semi-finals at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart after failing to recover from an abdominal injury she suffered in her quarter-final match.
The top seed’s withdrawal gives her opponent Anett Kontaveit a walkover and the Estonian goes through to the final where she will face the winner of the other semi-final between Petra Kvitova and Kiki Bertens.
“I’m really sorry I’m not able to compete for the semis today,” Osaka said. “I unfortunately got injured yesterday and I was waiting till today to see if I could get better.
“But unfortunately, I didn’t. I’m really sorry for everyone that came out and I hope to see you next year and I hope to play next year.”
The two-times Grand Slam champion had pulled off an epic comeback from 1-5 down in the final set on Friday when she beat Croatian Donna Vekic 6-3 4-6 7-6(4) despite struggling on the clay surface, making 45 unforced errors.
Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon
