A WTA Rising Stars Invitational champion back in 2014, Osaka clinched her debut appearance in Singapore shortly after winning her maiden major title at the US Open, but an inconsistency on serve cropped up in Beijing and has hampered her through losses to Kerber and Sloane Stephens on Monday.
“I feel like this match was sort of a continuation of my last match in a way that I feel like I didn't serve well in either of them. In a way I'm very proud of myself for being able to make the matches so close without really having a first serve, but I don't know. I feel like I'm not really sure how that's going wrong, and I want to practice it.”
