Osaka takes wild card to Saint-Malo 125; to face Parry in Round 2

Note: This article was originally published on April 25. The Saint-Malo draw is now out, and Naomi Osaka will face 19-year-old Croatian Petra Marcinko in the first round. She is projected to face No. 6 seed Olivia Gadecki in the quarterfinals and No. 4 seed Caroline Dolehide in the semifinals. Notable names in the top half of the draw include No. 1 seed McCartney Kessler, No. 7 seed Viktorija Golubic and rising French teenager Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah. Click here to view the full draw.

Meanwhile, next week's Vic WTA 125 event also features a former major champion -- Bianca Andreescu, who faces No. 4 seed Kimberly Birrell in the first round. Andreescu is in the same half of the draw as No. 2 seed Lulu Sun and No. 6 seed Maya Joint. Former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez is the No. 1 seed, while former doubles No. 1 Storm Hunter returns to action for the first time in over a year following an Achilles injury.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka will play a WTA 125 tournament for the first time in a decade after she accepted a wild card into next week's L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo.

The tournament announced Naomi Osaka as a late addition in a social media post on Thursday, saying the former World No. 1 is ready to "make some noise" in her debut.

After a lengthy training block on clay in France with her coach Patrick Mouratoglou -- during which she confessed to the Tennis Majors website that she felt "stronger" and was "ready to grind it out if [she] had to" -- Osaka lost in the first round of the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open on Tuesday to Italy's Lucia Bronzetti in three sets, her first match action in a month after losing in the fourth round of the Miami Open to Paolini.

WTA rules allow players ranked No. 11 or lower to compete in a WTA 125 event during the second week of a Grand Slam or mandatory WTA 1000 tournament, provided they have already been eliminated from the latter.

Osaka was runner-up at a WTA 125 event in Hua Hin, Thailand in November of 2015, when she was an 18-year-old ranked No. 203. That was her only previous appearance at a WTA 125 tournament. But she has made the decision to reappear at the level in search of more consistent match play on a surface she has yet to master.

Osaka has posted a 9-5 match record this season but is just 3-3 since January after an abdominal injury forced her to retire from both the ASB Classic final (against Clara Tauson) and the Australian Open fourth round (against Belinda Bencic).

Main-draw play in Saint-Malo begins on Monday. Ranked No. 55, Osaka is expected to be the No. 2 seed in Saint-Malo behind No. 53 Alycia Parks. Also in the field are No. 1 Varvara Gracheva, Americans Caroline Dolehide and Katie Volynets and former Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria.

Since the tournament’s elevation to WTA 125 status in 2021, past champions have included Beatriz Haddad Maia and Sloane Stephens, while Jasmine Paolini finished as runner-up in the inaugural edition.