Daria Saville’s knee injury scares Naomi Osaka

An injured Daria Saville holds her knee in pain at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo yesterday. Pic/AFP

Naomi Osaka said she felt "really scared" after watching opponent Daria Saville collapse with a knee injury just seven minutes into their Pan Pacific Open match in Tokyo on Tuesday. Australian Saville retired from their first-round encounter after hurting her left knee hitting a cross-court forehand in the second game of the match. The World No.55 yelled out "my knee" before dropping to the ground in agony, and Osaka rushed over to her side of the court to check on her opponent.

Naomi Osaka

Saville, 28, retired from the match after several minutes of treatment and Osaka, who has struggled with injury herself this year, said she felt "really sad" for her opponent. "I thought that she was just yelling because she thought her forehand was out, then I realised that she was yelling because she was in pain," said the former World No.1, who is aiming to break a slump in form this week in Tokyo.

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"Then I got really scared because I felt like as athletes we have a pretty high pain tolerance. It seemed really bad," said Osaka. Saville eventually got up and walked over to her chair, but she retired after testing her knee with several footwork exercises.

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