Moving on at Miami: Naomi Osaka has received 22 consecutive matches
Naomi Osaka may by no means hit a worse shot. Not that it mattered.
The world’s No. 2-ranked lady shanked a serve that sailed over her opponent’s head, however shook off the mishit to win her twenty second match in a row Friday, beating Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6 (3), 6-4 within the second spherical on the Miami Open.
Serving into the solar within the ultimate sport, Osaka clunked her shot off the lip of her racket, blooping the ball previous an astonished Tomljanovic.
“That was actually kind of funny when I got past my frustration,” Osaka mentioned.
“The sun was like on top of a cloud, and it gave off this really weird glare effect. It was kind of my fault for being stubborn and not trying to catch my toss and wait it out.”
Other serves had been a lot better, Osaka hit 13 aces. She hasn’t misplaced in additional than a yr, and her profitable streak consists of her fourth Grand Slam title on the Australian Open final month.
She wants just one extra victory for her finest displaying in 5 appearances in Miami, the place she has traditionally made early exits.
“I don’t think there’s too much you can read into them,” Osaka mentioned. “I think there’s always a reason I haven’t done well here, and hopefully I’m able to do well this time.”
In males’s play, No. 3-seeded Alexander Zverev double-faulted thrice on break level and misplaced to No. 83-ranked Emil Ruusuvuori, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1. Zverev was coming off a run to the title final week in Acapulco.
No. 1-seeded Daniil Medvedev wanted lower than an hour to beat 37-year-old Yen-hsun Lu 6-2, 6-2. Three different seeded males lost- No. 8 David Goffin, No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 30 Reilly Opelka.
Goffin, a semifinalist in 2016, was upset by James Duckworth 6-3, 6-1. Dimitrov was swept by Cameron Norrie 7-5, 7-5. No. 30 Reilly Opelka misplaced to Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-2.
In different girls’s play, No. 10 Kiki Bertens was upset by Liudmila Samsonova, 6-2, 6-1, and No. 13 Jennifer Brady misplaced to Sara Sorribes Tormo 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. No. 4 Sofia Kenin rallied previous Andrea Petkovic 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3.
Winning in straight units had been No. 6 Karolina Pliskova, No. 8 Bianca Andreescu, No. 12 Garbine Muguruza and No. 16 Elise Mertens.
Muguruza, who received the Dubai Championships earlier this month, improved her 2021 file to 19-4 by beating wild card Xinyu Wang 6-4, 6-1.
“I was actually quite nervous, because this is a tournament that I love,” Muguruza mentioned.
“After playing well in the Middle East swing, I just wanted to keep the same energy and the same quality of tennis.”Pliskova dropped her first service sport however settled down to comb Zheng Saisai 6-2, 6-1. Mertens was a degree from trailing 4-0 however rallied previous Katie Boulter 6-4, 6-1.