Naomi Osaka's promising Australian Open run came to an unfortunate end after the 27-year-old was forced to retire injured her third-round match against Belinda Bencic.
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On Friday, the Japanese evidently struggled physically in the first set and even received a medical timeout while 6-5 up.
Going into the Australian Open, the four-time Grand Slam champion sustained an abdominal injury in Auckland.
Against Bencic, Osaka appeared to be hampered by the same issue and it was impacting her serve but also leg positioning and movement on the court.
However, after the Swiss routinely won the tie-break 7-3, the former world No. 1 retired from the match.
For the Japanese, it was absolutely heartbreaking to end her campaign at Melbourne Park - especially after she previously clinched very strong back-to-back wins over Caroline Garcia and Karolina Muchova.
Osaka indicated at the start of the tournament that her condition was far from perfect
In the first week of the season, the 27-year-old reached the Auckland final - in which she retired after one set due to an abdominal injury.
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After arriving in Melbourne, the two-time Australian Open winner shared that her MRI "was not fantastic."
While she confirmed that she would play, it was pretty clear that she wasn't 100 percent fit and that something could possibly go wrong.
"Well, I'm normally a really honest person, but I probably won't answer your question honestly (smiling)," Osaka said in her pre-tournament presser when asked to share her MRI results.
"But, I mean, the MRI, it wasn't fantastic but it wasn't bad at the same time. So saying all that, I'm pretty optimistic about playing my match. I mean, for sure I'm going to play my match.
"Yeah, I've been practicing pretty well for the two days that I've been here, so... Seems to be going good."
