Mboko, Osaka Cincy pullouts the worst-kept secrets

Naomi Osaka and Victoria Mboko came good on hints they would skip this week’s Cincinnati Masters, with the finalist and winner at the just-concluded WTA event in Montreal tournament pulling the plug on Friday.

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, merely blamed “scheduling issues” for her decision, while the teenaged Mboko was actually suffering in Canada with a right wrist problem.     

“I woke up this morning, and I actually had my wrist a little bit swollen from yesterday’s (semi-final) fall,” she said after her three-set finals win over Japan’s Osaka.

“We quickly went to the hospital for an MRI and an X-ray before I came
to the courts to practice. But we got the green light that nothing too serious was going on in the wrist.”

A Cincinnati start already looked dead in the water. “I’m not planning on playing Cincinnati at the moment. I just want to take care of my wrist a little bit right now,” she said.

“It’s just very close and sudden for me to go there and play again in  like, two days. 

“I think I’m just going to sit out on that one and prepare for the upcoming tournaments.”

Osaka also did little to hide her decision to skip Cincy  “It’s going to be really interesting to go to Cincinnati. I don’t know. I feel like I’m a little teeter-tottering.

“It’s going to be interesting to see, yeah, what my next match is and how I’m going to play.”