Naomi Osaka on Tuesday lost her first match after becoming World No. 1 and then stunning the tennis world by parting ways with ex-coach Sascha Bajin. Osaka lost 3-6, 3-6 to France's Kristina Mladenovic at the Dubai Tennis Championships, in a match marked by numerous errors, including 5 double faults for the world's highest ranked player. Japanese-born Osaka announced that Bajin would no longer enlist Bajin's services as coach via Twitter, less than two weeks after reaching No. 1 in the WTA rankings, coming after a historic Australian Open victory in Melbourne, where she became the first Japanese player to win back-to-back grand slam titles and the country's first No. 1 tennis player. During interviews in Dubai, Osaka, whose father is Haitian, said severing ties with German coach Bajin had nothing to do with money and instead was because she refused to put "success over happiness." She is expected to retain her WTA No. 1 ranking, despite the upset loss.
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