Naomi Osaka beaten in second round on return at Brisbane International

Naomi Osaka's first tournament appearance in more than two years has ended with a second-round defeat to 16th seed Karolina Pliskova at the Brisbane International.

Following an opening-round win over Germany's Tamara Korpatsch on Monday, Osaka looked to keep her momentum going against the Czech world number 39 but was ultimately outlasted 3-6 7-6 (4) 6-4.

In a battle of two former world number ones, Osaka exploded out of the gates to claim the first set before Pliskova began to find her footing in the second.

After surviving an early break point, Pliskova capitalised on her serve to take control of the match, going on to win 92% of her first service points in the set.

Osaka continued to threaten throughout the final set, but was unable to make the most of her remaining opportunities in the narrow loss.

Osaka returned to the court on Monday for the first time since withdrawing from the Pan Pacific Trophy with a knee injury in September 2021.

She became a mother for the first time in July.

Meanwhile Britain's Emma Raducanu has earned direct entry into the main draw at the Australian Open following a number of late withdrawals.

The 2021 US Open champion made a winning return to the court at the ASB Classic in Auckland on Tuesday after being sidelined since April following operations on both her wrists and one ankle.

It appeared that Raducanu was going to be required to go through qualifying for the Australian Open due to her protected ranking - given to players who have been sidelined long term - not being high enough.

However, the Australian Open announced in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday that the 21-year-old would take the place of American Lauren Davis in the main draw after the American withdrew due to a shoulder