Naomi Osaka suffers painful Australian Open injury blow

Osaka, a two-time Australian Open winner, was unable to continue after Bencic won a tight opening set 7-6(3) in the pair's third round encounter.

The 27-year-old Japanese star led 5-2, but Bencic broke back when she served for the set at 5-3.

At 6-5, Osaka was visited by the trainer and took a tablet after she had began to struggle with an abdominal injury.

It is the same injury that forced the former world No. 1 to retire after winning the first set of the WTA 250 final in Auckland earlier this month.

Bencic is playing just her sixth tournament since she returned to the tour in October following the birth of her daughter in April last year.

In her on-court interview, the 27-year-old Swiss said: "At this moment, I just really feel for Naomi. Of course, I saw her struggling a bit at the end of the set.

"Obviously it's not the way you would like this match to end. I thought it was getting as a good match. So hopefully she'll be fine soon and can play well for the rest of the season.

"Obviously I know her well, I played her a couple of times and watched her on TV quite a bit, so you know how to go into this match and prepare. I felt like she started a little bit better than me, but I found my rhythm a little bit again.

"And in the end, I just tried to be solid and see what's going on and try to focus on myself. Yeah, I think I have things to improve but I'm happy with how I'm playing right now."

This impressive run to the last 16 in Melbourne has seen Bencic surge to 156th in the Live WTA Rankings - 138 places above the position of world No. 294 in which she started the event.

This matches her best Australian Open result as she also reached the fourth round in 2016 and 2023.

The former world No. 4 and Olympic gold medallist will next face either Coco Gauff or Leylah Fernandez.

"Yeah, it's been really nice, I've been enjoying my time off court in a little different way, I'm enjoying it much, much more," Bencic added. "It's super nice to be in Australia first time as a family. I want to thank everyone for watching."

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