"Naomi Osaka will never win another major title," "Disastrous comeback" - Fans react to Japanese's 'disappointing' Cincinnati Open qualifying 2R loss

Naomi Osaka will not be playing in the 2024 Cincinnati Open main draw as Ashlyn Krueger defeated her in the second round of qualifying. This was Osaka's first qualifying appearance since 2018 but she failed to get past it and fans are worried about the Japanese player's future.

Osaka last featured in the qualifying rounds in February 2018. Since then she has gone on to win four Grand Slam titles and achieved the World No. 1 ranking. However, she took a maternity leave last year which saw her start 2024 outside the Top 800.

As of now, Osaka is ranked at World No. 95 but it is still not enough to gain direct entry into the main draw of a WTA 1000 event. She went through the qualifiers route and got the better of Anna Blinkova, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the first round.

On August 12, however, American Ashlyn Krueger won 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 and ousted the Japanese from the second round of qualifying. The result was posted on X and fans reacted to Osaka's loss.

"This is so disappointing to say the least. Naomi Osaka's not been able to get any momentum at all since that close French Open loss to Iga Swiatek. A lot of tough opening draws, now this failed qualifying bid. She could be lacking confidence. She just has to keep going and not give up💪🏼," one said.

"She’ll never win another major title. She is lost on the court as a player," another said.

"It's been a recurring pattern in recent tournaments where she has a terrible 15 or 20 minutes. She's regularly losing five games on the bounce. Not sure why it's happening but these huge dips in her matches are killing her," yet another said.

Here are some more fan reactions to Naomi Osaka's loss.

"It means we should leave Osaka off all of the "dark horse" predictions because she doesn't have it anymore...maybe for a match (like against Swiatek in Paris) but certainly not for seven straight matches," a fan said.

"What a disastrous comeback so far," another said.

"To be fair, in 2018 she lost in straight sets to CSN in R1 of Montreal on a small court, three weeks before winning the US Open," a third fan said.

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Naomi Osaka won her first US Open title after a disappointing performance at the Cincinnati Open

Naomi Osaka at the Cincinnati Open 2024. (Image: Getty)

In 2018, Naomi Osaka lost in the first round of the Canadian Open to Carla Suarez Navarro. A week later, she faced defeat in her Cincinnati Open first-round match as well against Maria Sakkari.

However, despite these setbacks, the 20th seed Osaka defeated the likes of Aryna Sabalenka, Madison Keys and Serena Williams on her way to her first US Open title. She backed it up with an Australian Open title in 2019. She achieved a similar feat by winning the New York Major in 2020 and the Melbourne Major in 2021.

For the 2024 US Open, Osaka will need a wildcard to gain direct entry into the maindraw as she has exhausted the opportunities she had with her protected rankings. Other than the wildcard, her option is to go through the qualfitying rounds in New York.