Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand in January to instead play for Japan in the United Cup.
The four-time major winner had agreed in September to start her 2026 season in Auckland, where she reached the final earlier this year.
She contacted Auckland tournament director Nicolas Lamperin to say she had changed her mind and would instead begin her preparation for the Australian Open in Australia.
Former No. 1-ranked Osaka will combine with Shintaro Mochizuki in the Japan team for the Jan 2-11 United Cup in Perth. Japan is drawn to play Britain and Greece in group play.
The Australian Open, the first tennis Grand Slam event of the year, starts Jan 18 at Melbourne Park. (JapanToday)
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams will play in January’s Auckland Classic at the age of 45, tournament organisers announced Wednesday.
Williams has been awarded a wild card for the Australian Open warm-up event from January 5-11 after only returning to the circuit in August at the U.S. Open after a 16-month break.
“She is one of the great players in the modern era and her performances on the court speak for themselves,” said tournament director Nicolas Lamperin, who added that she was in “remarkable shape and form”.
“Off the court she has made an equally significant contribution to the game and to the development of female players worldwide,” he said. “Venus has had a profound influence on the evolution of women’s tennis and has inspired the next generation with her unshakeable passion for the sport.”
Williams, who won the Auckland Classic in 2015 when she beat Caroline Wozniacki in the final, has lifted five Wimbledon singles titles, two U.S. Opens and an Olympic gold, in Sydney in 2000.
Lamperin said it was a “privilege” to have Williams back at the tournament.
“All sports fans should take this opportunity to watch one of the sport’s all-time greats in action.”
Japan’s four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka was also announced as a confirmed entry for the tournament.
The Australian Open begins in Melbourne on January 18. (JapanToday)
Jannik Sinner won the 21st title of his career by thrashing American teenager Learner Tien 6-2, 6-2 in the China Open final on Wednesday.
The Italian lifted the trophy for the second time on Beijing’s hard courts, having done so on his tournament debut in 2023, and is eyeing a return to world number one.
The 24-year-old’s only loss on Beijing’s centre Diamond Court has been to great rival and top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, who won last year’s final in three gripping sets.
“A very, very special place for me,” said the victorious Sinner, a four-time Grand Slam champion and top seed this week.
Alcaraz was not defending his title in the Chinese capital and on Tuesday won the Japan Open in Tokyo.
Sinner broke immediately in the first set on the way to outclassing the 19-year-old Tien, who was in his first ATP final.
“Congrats to Jannik on a great week, another title, an honour to share the court with you today,” he told the world number two afterwards.
The world no. 52 got a rare chance to break in the second game of the second set but Sinner quickly retook control, ending a one-sided match with 10 aces over the 1h 12min final.
Tien would have been Beijing’s lowest-ranked champion in tournament history.
At 19 years and 9 months old, Tien would also have been the second-youngest American Tour champion since Andy Roddick in 2002.
As it was, he was never really in it, despite some flashes of his rich potential.
“You are showing throughout the whole season what a talent you are,” Sinner said in the aftermath.
Sinner’s emphatic win was his third title this season, after victories at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
Sinner may now have a chance to snatch back the top ranking before the season ends after Alcaraz pulled out of the Shanghai Masters injured on Tuesday.
The Spaniard took the world number one ranking from Sinner when he defeated the Italian in the U.S. Open final.
Sinner will be the top seed in Shanghai, which began this week. (JapanToday)
World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, on Saturday, successfully defended her US Open title with a thrilling 6-4 7-6 (7-3) win over Amanda Anisimova in New York, United States.
Sabalenka sealed a hard-fought victory against Anisimova at Flushing Meadows, making her the first woman to win the tournament in consecutive years since Serena Williams in 2014.
The Belarusian picked up the fourth Grand Slam title of her career as a result, all on hard courts – having now added two New York triumphs to her pair of Australian Open trophies.
Both women were looking to bury recent scar tissue, with Anisimova back in a major final 56 days after her Wimbledon whitewash, while Sabalenka suffered heart-breaking defeats at the Australian Open and French Open – forced to apologise after an ungracious press conference towards winner Coco Gauff at the latter.
Sabalenka also lost to Anisimova in the semi-finals at Wimbledon, putting her in the strange position of being by a distance the best player in the world but without a major trophy in 2025, but she quelled a fightback from her opponent to secure the silverware.
The set was threatening to run away from Anisimova in a similar fashion to Wimbledon, but she told herself above all this tournament to be brave and she powered winners into opposite corners to finally get on the board.
Having won one game, she quickly made that three in a row, the crowd greeting every winner with a huge cheer.
The American was dominating both the winner and error count and it was the latter that climbed again as Sabalenka responded with four games in a row to take the opening set.
Anisimova, who was struggling with the roof lighting on her ball toss, was too inconsistent to apply any solid pressure.
Anisimova slammed a ball down in frustration when a backhand pass from Sabalenka gave her another break in the third game of the second set and, although she fought back to level, the eighth seed’s serve was too much of a liability.
Sabalenka forged ahead again to lead 5-3 and soon found herself serving for the title.
Perhaps it was inevitable that it would not be straightforward. Anisimova somehow dug out a backhand lob that Sabalenka dumped into the net to give herself a chance to level and more huge hitting made it 5-5.
If there was a moment for the demons to resurface, it was now, but Sabalenka took the set to a tie-break, where she has been untouchable this season, and this time finished the job.
Anisimova’s final tally of 29 unforced errors, including seven double faults, was ultimately too many, but the American, who started the year ranked outside the top 30, will have the consolation of being a top-four player on Monday.
Reacting to her win, Sabalenka, who fell to her knees after clinching victory with an unreturnable serve and jumped up and down with her coaches in the stands in a scene of utter joy, said, “I want to thank everyone who came here, who flew in to be there in my box.
“I’m going to reach a lot more finals and I don’t care where you are in the world I want you in my box.”
Also speaking after her loss, Anisimova, who was left in tears yet again after the heartbreak of her 6-0 6-0 drubbing in the Wimbledon final two months ago, said, “It’s been a great summer, losing in two finals in a row is great but it’s also super hard.
“I didn’t fight hard enough for my dreams today.”
She later admitted having problems seeing the ball with the glare of the roof causing her issues when serving.
“I haven’t played on the court during the day with the roof closed. It was literally white, and I couldn’t see the ball when I was serving the whole match.
“It started from the warm-up. I was like, ‘this is really going to be a problem for me’. I didn’t know what to do.
“There was no way of adjusting, because I could not see the ball when I was serving, and that was a huge shock to my system, because I knew if I can’t hold my serve, it was going to be very tough to stay in the match,” she said. (Punch)
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