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WIMBLEDON, England — After becoming the first player in more than a decade to win her first two Grand Slam titles consecutively, Naomi Osaka has lost in the first week of the next two.
After a third-round loss last month at the French Open, the second-seeded Osaka fell to Yulia Putintseva, 7-6(4), 6-2, in the first round of Wimbledon on Monday afternoon on Centre Court.
Though an upset on paper, the result was not unexpected: Putintseva, a Muscovite who switched her representation to Kazakhstan, had beaten Osaka in their two previous meetings, last year in Hobart, Australia, and two weeks ago in Birmingham, England.