Naomi Osaka's 16-match Grand Slam winning streak has been followed by a two-match losing streak at majors, and as she haltingly discussed her quick departure from Wimbledon on Monday, she suddenly stopped.

"Can I leave?" Osaka asked the media conference moderator. "I feel like I'm about to cry."

And then she walked out.

On a wild opening day at the All England Club, No 2 Osaka was the highest-seeded and most-accomplished player to leave the scene, beaten 7-6(4), 6-2 by Yulia Putintseva.

For Osaka, it followed her third-round loss at the French Open in May.

Before that, she had won her first major at last year's US Open, then continued the unbeaten run by adding the Australian Open crown in January.

That made her just the 10th woman to win those two tournaments back-to-back, and the first player from Japan to top the WTA or ATP rankings.

Shortly after that, Osaka split from coach Sascha Bajin, saying: "I think my reason is I wouldn't put success over my happiness," but offering no further explanation.

When Osaka was asked on Monday about whether there could be a correlation between Bajin's departure and her recent results, she replied: "I don't think it's related at all."

Osaka, who dropped one spot behind new No 1 Ashleigh Barty last week, found her biggest issue against the 39th-ranked Putintseva was accuracy.

Osaka ended up with 38 unforced errors, 31 more than her opponent.

"I feel like I should have been able to play well today because I wasn't practicing bad," said Osaka, who dropped to 0-3 against Putintseva, including a loss on grass at a tuneup tournament last month.

"You just never know what's going to happen during matches."

Seven of Osaka's eight losses in 2019 have come against players ranked outside the top 20.

Meanwhile, when a reporter asked Putintseva why she's had so much success against Osaka, the Kazakh erupted into peals of laughter after saying: "I'm not going to tell you my secrets."

Associated Press