PARIS (AP) — U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka has pulled out of the French Open due to an injured left hamstring.

Osaka joins defending champion Ash Barty in skipping the French Open, which opens on Sept. 27 in Paris.

In one other blow to the clay Grand Slam, match organizers introduced an extra discount in crowd sizes, due to France’s worsening coronavirus epidemic.

The brand new restrict, decreed by the Paris police division, is 5,000 spectators per day, organizers stated in an announcement late Thursday. They’d beforehand been planning for 11,500 spectators, break up amongst three websites at Roland Garros.

”It is vital for the sporting, social and financial lifetime of the nation {that a} main occasion like Roland-Garros may be placed on whereas respecting well being imperatives,” organizers stated.

Osaka, who’s ranked No. 3, damage the hamstring final month on the Western & Southern Open, additionally in New York, and withdrew from that match’s ultimate due to it, then wore heavy tape in the course of the U.S. Open.

”Sadly I will not be capable to play the French Open this yr,” Osaka stated on Twitter. ”My hamstring continues to be sore so I will not have time to arrange for the clay – these two tournaments got here too shut to one another for me this time.”

Osaka wouldn’t have been a favourite on the clay floor. The U.S. Open title was her third main match title.

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