Naomi Osaka revealed an off-season illness hindered her 2026 debut against Maria Sakkari, the former world No. 1 suffering a 6-4, 6-2 defeat that helped Greece clinch a 2-0 win at the United Cup on Friday.
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“I’m not operating at the percent that I want to be operating at, which kind of sucks because, like, I had a really good off-season so I thought I was going to do really well here,” Osaka told press after the match. “Then I got really sick. I think I’m at the tail end of that, but still not amazing.
“So yeah, I feel like for me, I’m just trying to get better every day. Obviously, I had a cough, like a runny nose, like all that nasty stuff, yeah. Hopefully it goes away before the Australian Open.”
