Naomi Osaka showed that she is on the road to recovery from the abdominal injury that forced her out of the Australian Open in January, but getting sharp and match tough is going to take a little more time.

Osaka, the four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1, lost to Camila Osorio of Colombia, the world No. 53, in straight sets Wednesday night (6-4, 6-4) in the first round of Indian Wells. On social media, she later described the defeat as the “worst match I’ve ever played in my life.”

Osaka, ranked 56th, and Osorio were dead even through the first eight games, but Osaka committed a flurry of errors while serving at 4-4. It gave Osorio the chance to serve out the set, and the spunky Colombian didn’t waste it.

The game was a microcosm of the match. Osaka committed errors every which way. Balls flew long and wide. Some missed by a few inches. Others missed by a few feet.

The errors were especially prevalent when Osaka was under pressure. Osaka and Patrick Mouratoglou, her coach since September, focused on that dynamic for months and seemed to have made headway as Osaka got on a roll at the start of the year.

Osaka made the finals in Auckland and was rolling against Clara Tauson when she aggravated an abdominal injury and had to retire after the first set. Osaka played some of her best tennis since her return from maternity leave at the beginning of 2024 through 2 1/2 matches at the Australian Open, including a win over Karolina Muchova, one of the world’s top players.

Then, Osaka strained the muscle again and had to retire from her third-round match with Belinda Bencic after the first set. She had dominated Bencic until the injury.

Osaka returned to California and rested. But she had two hard weeks of training ahead of Indian Wells, and Mouratoglou pronounced her ready to go. Physically, perhaps, but the tennis just wasn’t there.

“It’s crazy for me, a dream come true,” said Osorio, 23, who had never won a match in Indian Wells. Her win marked the first time a woman from Colombia has beaten a former world No. 1.

For Osaka, who won Indian Wells in 2018, the loss allows her to rest before she heads to the Miami Open, one of the events closest to her heart and near where she grew up in South Florida. After her defeat, Osaka confirmed that her body is fit, but her form just was not there.

“I don’t think I was too good on my end,” she said in her news conference.

She described a frustrating month after the Australian Open in which she was not allowed to play for a week, could not serve for another week, then was allowed to slowly begin serving but only if she slowly increased her intensity week by week so as not to reinjure her abdominal muscle.

“I did well in Australia,” she said. “It feels a little bit like stopping starting again.”

That said, even with the loss, Osaka said her start to the year feels far better than last year, when she struggled to find any consistency. Or maybe she’s getting used to the idea she will likely never have a smooth ride back to the top of the sport.

“It feels like a bump in the road,” she said. “I don’t feel like I played well at all, but I still feel like I had so many chances to be in the match.”

Required reading

(Photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

The FBI added a former Olympian and a Canadian national to its list of top 10 most wanted fugitives on Thursday.

The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for the capture of Ryan Wedding, 43. Wedding, who competed in a snowboarding event for Canada in the 2002 winter Olympics, is wanted for allegedly running “a transnational drug trafficking network.”

FBI Los Angeles chief Akil Davis said in a press conference Thursday that Wedding’s alleged trafficking ring “routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and other locations in the United States, and for orchestrating multiple murders and an attempted murder in furtherance of these drug crimes.”

“Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada,” Davis said in a statement.

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“The alleged murders of his competitors make Wedding a very dangerous man, and his addition to the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, coupled with a major reward offer by the State Department, will make the public our partner so that we can catch up with him before he puts anyone else in danger,” he added.

Davis noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio approved the $10 million reward for Wedding’s capture. The FBI is also offering an additional $50,000 for information leading to his arrest.

Wedding was previously convicted in the U.S. of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and he was sentenced to prison in 2010, according to federal records. 

The FBI says Wedding’s aliases include “El Jefe,” “Giant,” “Public Enemy,” “James Conrad King,” and “Jesse King.” They say he is roughly 6’3″ and 240 pounds.

Federal authorities first issued an arrest warrant for Wedding in September of last year, but he has still not been apprehended.

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Thursday’s announcement comes just after the Justice Department announced the capture of one of Wedding’s alleged accomplices, Andrew Clark, 34. Clark, a Canadian citizen who was living in Mexico, was arrested by Mexican authorities in October 2024 and is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Arizona. 

The FBI is cracking down on drug trafficking across both of America’s borders under new director Kash Patel. (Anna Moneymaker/Kent Nishimura)

The indictment says Wedding and his associates conspired to deliver shipments of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Los Angeles to Canada using long-haul semi-trucks.

Wedding is charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; conspiracy to export cocaine; continuing criminal enterprise; murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime; and attempt to commit murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and drug crime.

While the Rams continue their attempt to trade star receiver Cooper Kupp, they moved Thursday to make sure quarterback Matthew Stafford still has another familiar face to pass to.

The Rams have agreed to terms with pending free-agent receiver Tutu Atwell on a one-year contract that includes $10 million in salary and bonuses, a person with knowledge of the situation said Thursday. The person requested anonymity because the deal has not been finalized.

Atwell, 5 feet 9 inches and 165 pounds, was a surprise second-round draft pick in 2021. After a rough rookie season, the speedy and diminutive Atwell became a solid contributor in a receiver corps that eventually included Kupp, Puka Nacua and Demarcus Robinson.

Nacua supplanted Kupp, who struggled with injuries the last three seasons, as the No. 1 receiver in coach Sean McVay’s offense. He is expected to lead a unit that now includes Atwell, second-year pro Jordan Whittington and will grow during free agency and the draft.

Unless he is re-signed, Robinson will become a free agent Wednesday.

Kupp is due to earn $20 million in salary and bonuses this season, according to Overthecap.com. He is due to receive a $7.5-million bonus next week, so the Rams are working to trade him before that comes due.

“We’re working to try to find a partner and a next chapter for Cooper and ourselves,” general manager Les Snead said Wednesday.

Last season, Atwell had 42 catches for 562 yards, both career bests. He earned about $1.5 million in salary in 2024, according to Overthecap.com.

Atwell is the second pending free agent to re-sign with the Rams.

Left tackle Alaric Jackson received a three-year contract that includes $35 million in guarantees.