Naomi Osaka suffers an early exit in Abu Dhabi tournament.

Naomi Osaka’s comeback hit another roadblock as she suffered a 7-5, 6-0 defeat to former world number seven Danielle Collins in the first round of the Abu Dhabi Open on Tuesday.

Osaka, 26, returned last month from a 15-month absence from the tour, during which she gave birth to her first child Shai, but has been handed some tricky draws and has lost three of her four matches so far this campaign.

Despite a close opening set that witnessed supreme serving from both players, Osaka struggled in her service games in the second set and failed to convert any of her six break point opportunities to fall to the American qualifier in one hour and 23 minutes.

“I know she’s still only a couple of matches into her comeback. But I think she’s playing well,” said Collins, who is currently ranked 71 in the world.

“She played a good first set and was serving very well and doing some really great things out on court. I’m sure at this point it’s just kind of regaining confidence and getting more matches under her belt and getting back into the routine of tournaments and that stuff, which can be challenging. But I thought she played well overall.”

Japan’s Osaka won her first three meetings with Collins but had lost their most recent affair coming into Abu Dhabi, a straights-set defeat to the American in the first round of the 2022 US Open.

In windy conditions in the UAE capital, neither player was troubled on serve early on, with the first deuce of the contest coming in the 10th game as Collins served to stay in the set but the American shook off the pressure to hold for 5-5.

Collins created the first break point opportunities of the match in game 11 and converted her second chance to inch ahead 6-5.

Despite hitting a couple of double faults, Collins managed to close out the frame on her fourth set point to take the lead in 54 minutes.