Two-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka battled into the last 16 of the US Open on Friday, requiring three sets to defeat 18-year-old Ukrai...
Two-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka battled into the last 16 of the US Open on Friday, requiring three sets to defeat 18-year-old Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.
Osaka, the 2018 US Open champion, needed 2 hours and 33 minutes to beat the unseeded world No 137 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 inside an empty Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“She was very good. I’m kind of scared of how she is going to be in the future,” Osaka said of her vanquished opponent.
Frustration got the better of the Japanese fourth seed in the second set. After recovering from 5-3 to force a tie-break she threw her racquet when Kostyuk tied the match 1-1.
But Osaka’s experience came through in the deciding set as she held her serve and broke Kostyuk twice to set up a match against 14th seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia. Kontaveit progressed by beating Poland’s 24th seed Magda Linetter 6-3, 6-2.
Osaka, of Haitian and Japanese heritage, walked onto the court wearing a facemask emblazoned with the name of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man who was shot dead in broad daylight while jogging in the town of Brunswick, in southern Georgia, in February.
Osaka is wearing different masks honoring victims of racial injustice and police brutality throughout the tournament.
— NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) September 4, 2020
Germany’s 17th seed...
