• Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Kristina Mladenovic of France in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round win over Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. Getty Images
    Kristina Mladenovic of France in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round win over Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. Getty Images
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
    Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. EPA
  • Kristina Mladenovic of France in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round win over Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. Getty Images
    Kristina Mladenovic of France in action during her 6-3, 6-3 second-round win over Japan's world No 1 Naomi Osaka at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday night. Getty Images
  • Kristina Mladenovic of France celebrates winning her second round match against Naomi Osaka of Japan at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis WTA Championships 2019 in Dubai. EPA
    Kristina Mladenovic of France celebrates winning her second round match against Naomi Osaka of Japan at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis WTA Championships 2019 in Dubai. EPA
  • Naomi Osaka, left, and Kristina Mladenovic shake hands after the match. EPA
    Naomi Osaka, left, and Kristina Mladenovic shake hands after the match. EPA

Dubai Tennis: Naomi Osaka crashes out – in pictures


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Naomi Osaka stumbled badly in her first match since winning the Australian Open as the world No 1 went down in a flurry of errors to exit the Dubai Championships on Tuesday.

Dubai-based Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic claimed a 6-3, 6-3 victory to reach the third round as Osaka made 25 unforced errors.

The rout, which featured seven breaks of the Osaka serve, took barely an hour, sending Mladenovic into a Wednesday contest with Carla Suarez Navarro.

"This is my home tournament, I live here," world No 67 Mladenovic said. "It's great to get a win like this in front of a big crowd. Beating the No 1 is always special."

The second set was riddled with seven consecutive breaks of serve before Mladenovic finished off the job with a winner to the empty court on match point.

Osaka stunned the tennis world last week by announcing her split from coach Sascha Bajin despite winning back-to-back Grand Slam titles at the US Open and Australian Open.

She said earlier this week that she would not prioritise "success over happiness" when asked about the sacking, and she never looked like winning in Dubai as she also served five double faults.