Japanese star Osaka eliminated from Olympic tennis singles event

TOKYO - Japan's tennis name card Naomi Osaka crashed out of the women's singles third round at the hand of the Czech Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets at Tokyo 2020 here on Tuesday.

Osaka struggled in front of an opponent she had never faced before on the professional circuit, and the world No. 2 player conceded a 6-1, 6-4 defeat.

"I definitely feel like there was a lot of pressure for this," admitted Osaka toward playing on home court.

Osaka, who had lit the cauldron at the Olympics opening ceremony on July 23, said, "It's maybe because I haven't played in the Olympics before and for the first year (it) was a bit much."

Osaka had her serve broken in the first and third games, going 4-0 behind before pocketing her only game of the set. But Vondrousova broke the Japanese player's serve again en route to a 6-1 first set win.

Osaka started the second set in a stronger fashion breaking her Czech opponent once, but the 42nd-ranked Vondrousova fought back and took the second set and the match after breaking Osaka's serve in the final game.

Osaka said everything "has gone wrong" in her defeat. "If you watch the match then you would probably see. I feel like there's a lot of things that I counted on that I couldn't rely on today."

"Of course it's one of the biggest wins of my career," said Vondrousova.