Wimbledon 2019: World No2 Naomi Osaka suffers biggest shock on Day 1 with straight-sets defeat and leaves press conference on verge of tears
NAOMI OSAKA suffered the biggest shock of Day 1 at Wimbledon - and then left her press conference early on the verge of tears.
The second seed was comfortably beaten 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 by Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva on Centre Court in just 96 minutes.
And the emotion of the defeat clearly got the better of her as she suddenly said: "Can I leave? I feel like I'm about to cry."
With that, she was gone, out of the media room and out of Wimbledon.
It had all started so well for the reigning US Open and Australian Open champion.
Osaka, still only 21, broke her opponent's serve in the third game of the match and held for 3-1.
But Putintseva fought back to force a tie-break and again battled from 3-1 down to take it 7-4 as Osaka missed a backhand.
And from there, the wheels came off for the Japanese star.
She just about held in the first game of the second and regained her lead for 2-1 - but that was as good as it got.
The crucial game came at 3-2 on Putintseva's serve as she saved break point to hold.
I wouldn't blame my age on anything. I've done a lot of good things. I've done a lot of bad things. But I'm not the type of person that would say because I'm young I can get away with doing certain things.
Naomi Osaka
And Osaka's miserable afternoon on the main stage at SW19 came to a disappointing end as she sliced a pathetic backhand into the net to seal her fate - her 38th unforced error.
A clearly heartbroken Osaka said: "I mean, I just don't think I played that well.
"But I wasn't surprised because I've played her twice already."
Osaka hit back at comments suggesting her young age went against her - and that her shock coaching switch was a mistake.
The world No2 continued: "I don't think [the coaching change] related at all.
"I wouldn't blame my age on anything [either]. I've done a lot of good things. I've done a lot of bad things.
"But I'm not the type of person that would say because I'm young I can get away with doing certain things."
But as the questions continued to roll in, Osaka appeared more and more emotional, before she eventually asking the moderator if she could be excused.
In the other big shocks of the day Alexander Zverev was dumped out by Czech qualifier Jiri Veseley and Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered defeat against Thomas Fabbiano.
The German sixth seed won the first set on Court No1 6-4 but was then undone 6-3 6-2 7-5 to crash out and continue his poor record at Grand Slams.
Meanwhile, Greece's Tsitsipas was tipped by many to threaten the dominance of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal but lost in five sets.