Fourth seed Naomi Osaka overcame unseeded Shelby Rogers in straight sets to reach the US Open semi-finals on Tuesday and declared it “reven...
Fourth seed Naomi Osaka overcame unseeded Shelby Rogers in straight sets to reach the US Open semi-finals on Tuesday and declared it “revenge” for earlier defeats.
The Japanese 2018 US Open champion brushed aside the 27-year-old American 6-3, 6-4, in an hour and 20 minutes inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Osaka, 22, will play 28th-seeded American Jennifer Brady on Thursday for a place in the final.
Despite going into the last-eight match as favorite, the world number 9 Osaka said she was apprehensive about playing the 93rd-ranked Rogers because she had failed to beat her in three previous outings.
“Honestly, I just felt like she had the upper hand because I’ve never beaten her,” Osaka said. “And those memories are stuck in my head so I consider this a little bit of revenge,” she added.
Osaka said a defeat to Rogers in 2017 on clay in Charleston had left “a really bad aftertaste in my mouth.”
“I’m really glad I was able to have a much better positive attitude today,” she explained.
Brady, 25, earlier ousted 23rd seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2.
Osaka, of Haitian and Japanese heritage, walked onto the court wearing a facemask emblazoned with the name of George Floyd, the unarmed black man whose death in police custody in May sparked...
