After losing her first match for Japan against Greece’s Maria Sakkari on Friday, Osaka said she became “very ill” over the holiday period and was not functioning at 100% during the 6-4, 6-2 defeat.
Osaka coughed occasionally during the match and seemed to lack energy. She said she probably contracted an illness from her 2-year-old daughter Shai.
“I’ve been dealing with some health stuff, so I’m really just happy to be here right now,” Osaka said. “It’s not serious, but I’m not operating at the percentage I want to operate at. That sucks because I had a really good offseason, so I thought I was going to do really well here.”
Osaka, who advanced to the semifinals of the US Open last year, said she thinks she is almost done with the disease.
“I’m at the end of that, but still not great,” she said. “I’m just trying to get better every day. I had a cough and a runny nose, like all those nasty things, so hopefully it will go away before the Australian Open.”
The first Grand Slam event of the year starts on January 18 in Melbourne.
Stefanos Tsitsipas rounded off Greece’s match victory against Japan with a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Shintaro Mochizuki.
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