Naomi Osaka will compete in the third tournament of her comeback at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open. AFP
Naomi Osaka will compete in the third tournament of her comeback at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open. AFP
Naomi Osaka will compete in the third tournament of her comeback at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open. AFP
Naomi Osaka will compete in the third tournament of her comeback at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open. AFP

Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open: Osaka on course to face Rybakina in second round


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Naomi Osaka could be set for a tantalising second-round match against top seed Elena Rybakina at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open after the draw for the tournament was made on Saturday.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka was handed a wildcard for the WTA 500 tournament, which begins at Zayed Sports City on Monday, and will face a qualifier in the opening round. Should the Japanese star come through that, then a showdown with world No 5 Rybakina awaits.

As one of the top four seeds, Kazakhstan’s Rybakina received a bye through to the second round.

Osaka, 26, is in the early stages of her comeback to the WTA Tour having missed the entire 2023 season to have a baby. Her daughter Shai was born last July. Prior to that, the former world No 1 had cut short her 2022 season in September to focus on her mental health.

Osaka, currently ranked 759 but playing under a protected ranking of 46, has competed in two events so far this season; she made the second round of the Brisbane International and lost in the first round of the Australian Open. The Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open will therefore be the third event on her comeback trail.

Rybakina, meanwhile, will be aiming to bounce back in Abu Dhabi after a disappointing showing in Melbourne. The 2023 Australian Open finalist suffered a shock defeat in the second round. A quarter-finalist in Abu Dhabi last year, the 2022 Wimbledon champion will be one of the favourites for the title next week.

A similarly enticing match-up could take place at the opposite end of the draw, with second seed Ons Jabeur potentially facing former US Open champion Emma Raducanu in the second round. The 21-year-old Briton will first need to get past world No 36 Czech Marie Bouzkova, though.

Raducanu is in the process of her own comeback. Before the start of this season she had not played since last April and required surgery on both wrists and an ankle. Those injuries have contributed significantly to Raducanu’s stunted progress since her historic triumph at the US Open in 2021 when she became the first qualifier in the Open era to win a major title.

Confirmed line-up for Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open

Jabeur and Raducanu are yet to meet on the WTA Tour but have played each other at Zayed Sports City when they competed in the 2022 Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

There have been encouraging signs so far, with two wins and two defeats in Auckland and Melbourne, and the experienced Bouzkova – a Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 2022 – will provide a stern test as to the state of her game.

Whoever advances to the second round will face a determined Jabeur keen to get her season up and running after an early exit at the Australian Open. The Tunisian world No 6 was handed a heavy second-round loss by teenager Mirra Andreeva in Melbourne, and will hope her experience of playing in Abu Dhabi and the home support will contribute towards a deep run at the tournament.

Ons Jabeur is aiming to bounce back from an early exit at the Australian Open. Reuters
Ons Jabeur is aiming to bounce back from an early exit at the Australian Open. Reuters

Also in the top half of the draw along with Osaka and Rybakina are former French Open champions Barbora Krejcikova and Jelena Ostapenko, seeded fourth and fifth respectively. Krejcikova, handed a first-round bye, will face either Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova or a qualifier in the second round, while Ostapenko opens her tournament in the first round against a qualifier.

Rounding off the top half is an all-Chinese match between Xinyu Wang and Lin Zhu, Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina taking on Spain’s Paula Badosa and last year’s finalist Liudmila Samsonova of Russia against Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko.

In the bottom half, Russian seventh seed Daria Kasatkina will face a qualifier, France’s Caroline Garcia plays Romanian Sorana Cirstea – with the winner advancing to face Greek third seed Maria Sakkari – and top-ranked Filipino Alexandra Eala will take on Poland’s Magda Linette. Brazil’s sixth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia will play China’s Xiyu Wang.

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Six large-scale objects on show
  • Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
  • The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
  • A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
  • Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
  • A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
  • Torrijos Palace dome
The biog

Name: Capt Shadia Khasif

Position: Head of the Criminal Registration Department at Hatta police

Family: Five sons and three daughters

The first female investigator in Hatta.

Role Model: Father

She believes that there is a solution to every problem

 

Updated: February 03, 2024, 2:06 PM`