Can Naomi Osaka enter US Open 2024 main draw amid poor run of form? All you need to know
Naomi Osaka is going through a lean patch at the moment. She was not given a wildcard for the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati and had to play in the qualifiers as a result to get into the main draw of the tournament. However, she lost to Ashlyn Krueger of the United States, thus ruling out her appearance in the tournament.
This defeat came after her loss to Elise Mertens of Belgium in the second round of the National Bank Open in Canada. The 26-year-old Japanese lost in the second round of the French Open and Wimbledon as well, albeit after giving an almighty scare to eventual champion, Iga Swiatek, in the former.
The match against Swiatek in which the Japanese had a match point before losing ultimately, showed that she still can prove to be more than a handful on her day, as did her win over One Jabeur in the first round of the National Bank Open.
However, she is ranked 90th in the world, which is not good enough to earn her a direct entry into the US Open, which gets underway on August 26 in New York. Osaka took a maternity leave for the birth of her daughter in 2023, and has since played in three Grand Slam tournaments this year with protected ranking.
This means that she has exhausted the limit of getting a direct entry to a Grand Slam, which is three, on the basis of protected ranking.
In such a scenario, there are two options left for her to play at the US Open. She can either get a wildcard for the same, or she could go through qualifiers to play in the main draw of the tournament.
Naomi Osaka's history at US Open
Osaka has enough pedigree as a player to get a wildcard. She is a four-time Grand Slam champion and has won the US Open twice. However, as she was denied a wildcard for the Cincinnati Masters, she might actually have difficulty in getting one for the New York Major.
Quite famously in 2018, Osaka came to New York on the back of a couple of disappointing losses in Canada and Cincinnati, but then managed to win her maiden Grand Slam at the US Open.
While it will take some effort on her part to repeat her heroics this year, Naomi Osaka will have to first think of ensuring participation in the tournament. From the look of things, it seems that she will have to play in the qualifiers to get an entry into the US Open this time around.