FORMER world number 1 Naomi Osaka advanced to the fourth round of the China Open with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Katie Volynets to meet Coco Gauff in the last 16 of the WTA 1000 event.
The third round match was postponed a day due to rain, but the overnight delay didn’t deter Osaka one bit.
The four-time Grand Slam champion won his first meeting with world number 60, Volynets, in 1 hour 17 minutes.
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“For me, I want to continue to develop from my last match,” said Osaka, quoted from the official WTA website, Tuesday (1/10).
“I just tried to be very aggressive from the start. I felt I shouldn’t be too concerned about my own mistakes
rather than keep it moving,” he continued.
With this victory, Osaka set up an important match in the fourth round against fourth seed Gauff, which will take place today, Tuesday (1/10).
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This will be the first meeting between the two Grand Slam champions in more than two years.
Osaka and Gauff have evenly split their previous four head to heads, alternating wins each year between 2019 and 2022. Gauff won their last meeting in San Jose in August 2022 with scores of 6-4 and 6-4.
“I think it will be a really cool test for me,” Osaka said of meeting Gauff.
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“He’s played really well this year. I’m excited to play that game, and I know the guys are excited to
watching the match,” he added.
This was Osaka’s first appearance in Beijing since she won the China Open title in 2019.
The only former champion competing in the main draw this fortnight, Osaka, has an incredible 13-2 win-loss record in her career at the event.
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“I think it helped that when I first got here, people said I was on a winning streak,
even though it was from a few years ago,’ Osaka said.
“I feel like it’s like faking it till you make it. However, I also realized that I played better throughout the year,” he added.
Osaka has shown some of her best form in her opening three rounds, losing just one set, to 21st seed Yulia Putintseva.
It was the first time Osaka had won three matches in a row since Rome in May.
Osaka, who returned from maternity leave in the first week of the season and is currently ranked 73rd in the world, has won all seven of her WTA singles titles on hard courts. (Ant/Z-1)
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