Defending Australian Open champion and third-ranked Naomi Osaka has opted out of the 2019 WTA Finals in Shenzhen after suffering a right shoulder injury.
Osaka had won her opening match against Petra Kvitova 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-4 on Sunday, and had been scheduled to take on the top-ranked Ashleigh Barty on Tuesday. She will now be replaced by Kiki Bertens who will take on Barty in her place.
Osaka said in a media statement:
“I’m disappointed to have to withdraw from the Finals. It has been a great event in Shenzhen, and it’s the biggest WTA event of the year. This is not how I wanted to end this tournament or my season. I look forward to getting healthy and hope to be back here in Shenzhen next year.”
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The Japanese player had won 11 matches in a row, having first won the Japan Open at home and then clinched the China Open by beating Ash Barty in the final. Her win over Kvitova made it 11 wins in a row for her.
Interestingly, Bertens had made it to the last-four of the WTA Finals last year but missed out of the berth to Belinda Bencic who made it to this competition on the back of a title win at the Kremlin Cup.
Bertens will have her task cut out given her late entry. She will now play only two matches in the group stage of the tournament and even if she manages to win both, the tournament rules work against her. In case of a tie between players on the points table, a player with more matches played gets ranked higher on the table.
The WTA Finals has a total prize money of $14 million, with round-robin wins worth 250 points apiece. An appearance in the final allocates 330 more points while the champion can win 1830 points in total if she wins all her matches.
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