‘I’ll see you next time’: Osaka pulls out of Wimbledon with achilles injury

The four-time grand slam winner Naomi Osaka has pulled out of Wimbledon after failing to recover from an achilles injury. An update posted on Wimbledon’s official website on Saturday confirmed that the world No 43 had been added to the withdrawals list alongside Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard, who has a shoulder injury.

“My achilles still isn’t right so I’ll see you next time,” she said later on Twitter. “I feel like life keeps dealing cards and you’re never gonna be used to them but it’s how you adapt to uncomfortable situations that really says stuff about your character. I’ve been repeating mantras a lot in my head recently. I don’t know if it’s to subconsciously help myself through stressful times or to ease my mind into realizing that everything will work out fine as long as I put in the work. Cause what more can you do?”

Osaka recently posted a video of herself doing rehab on a water treadmill in which she said her achilles was “being stubborn still”. There were already doubts about whether she would compete at SW19 after she said playing the tournament without rankings points made it feel like an “exhibition”.

Osaka also withdrew from Wimbledon last year on the back of a much-publicised withdrawal from the French Open, after which she chose her competitions carefully to protect her mental health. She has not played on grass since 2019 and was most recently beaten in the first round of the 2022 French Open.