“It was a good match until she withdrew. I sincerely wish her a speedy recovery. Nobody wants to win a match like this, especially if you play an even set. Overall I did my best. It wasn’t my best tennis.”
Coco Gauff beat Naomi Osaka in two sets, taking advantage of the Japanese’s withdrawal at the end of the second set. The match was perfectly even: Naomi had won the first set and was up a break in the second, before suffering the comeback of the young American. But there was no third and decisive set, as Osaka chose to withdraw preventively due to a back problem suffered before the 4th round of the China Open against Gauff.
Coco moved the crowd at the China Open with a beautiful gesture, helping Osaka out of the court after the Japanese player withdrew. The American appeared genuinely sorry when Naomi approached her to tell her the decision. Gauff wanted to help her opponent with the bags, while Osaka said: “Really?”
After insisting a lot, Coco managed to convince Naomi, took her racket bag and walked out of the court with her to lighten the load on her already injured back. A beautiful scene, which you can watch in the video below shared by the WTA X account:
Lending a helping hand 💜@CocoGauff helps her opponent off the court after Naomi Osaka is forced to retire due to a lower back injury.
Gauff advances to the #ChinaOpen quarterfinals with the score at 3-6, 6-4, RET. pic.twitter.com/ahm3pavauj
— wta (@WTA) October 1, 2024
After the match, throught an Instagram stories, Naomi explained the reason of her withdrawal: “I just wanted to say that I am extremely grateful and happy to have played in Beijing. I have a backstory about today: I suffered a back problem in practice earlier and I honestly wasn’t sure if I could play, but I wanted to try. Unfortunately, things got progressively worse during the match.”