How Can Naomi Osaka Qualify for WTA Finals?

A tumultuous year for Naomi Osaka on the WTA tour this year as the former world no.1 had difficulties finding her top game post victory at the Australian Open earlier this season. Just when the Japanese was expected to continue her winning momentum since the happy slam, Osaka failed to make an impact thereafter.

Naomi Osaka struggled to make an impact this year on the WTA tour

Her return to form was hampered by the controversy at Roland Garros when she decided to skip the post-match pressers and wanted to focus just on her game. The tennis world was divided by Osaka’s decision and this, in turn, had affected her season post French Open.

Even her US hard-court comeback didn’t yield beneficial results as she lost to Leylah Fernandez in the third-round of the US Open. Post the defeat, the Japanese mentioned about taking an indefinite break from tennis.

At the start of the WTA season, Osaka was leading the race to WTA finals. As the year progressed, her chances became slim and she is currently placed tenth in the finals leaderboard.

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Osaka currently has 2771 points in the rankings board and the chances of her making it to the inaugural WTA Finals in Guadalajara is nearly impossible.

By winning the Indian Wells event few days ago, Spanish rising tennis player Paula Badosa managed to surpass Osaka and Jabeur to sit on the eighth position in the WTA race.

Osaka has a bleak chance of making it to the WTA Finals in Guadalajara

Initially, it was Ashleigh Barty, Aryna Sabalenka, Barbora Krejcikova, and Karolina Pliskova were qualified for the year-end championships in Mexico.

But, the expected withdrawal of Barty yesterday benefitted Iga Swiatek and Garbine Muguruza as they got qualified as their positions moved up by one.

With Paula Badosa(3112) almost getting confirmed on the seventh position, that gives Ons Jabeur a fair chance to become the final player to qualify for the WTA Finals.

Now, if Osaka does intend to make a comeback to qualify for the year-end event in Guadalajara, she will have to earn at-least a minimum of 500 points to be able to grab the last spot.

However, there is no official confirmation from the Japanese player regarding whether she likes to take the very slim chance of participating in the WTA finals or rest up and enter the tour in Australia next year.

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