Naomi Osaka defeated at Miami Open: Japan’s world number two Naomi Osaka's 23-match winning streak came to an end after she was defeated by 23-seeded Maria Sakkari. The Greek player won the match 6-0, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open on Wednesday night.
Osaka hadn’t lost a match in more than a year. This was her first defeat since February 2020. With this, she lost the chance of reclaiming the No. 1 ranking this week from Ash Barty, who is in the semifinals. "The more stuff like this happens, the more I'll learn from it," Osaka said.
Osaka won the first Grand Slam title of 2021 in February when she beat USA’s Jennifer Brady in the Australian Open final on February 20. As far as the Miami Open goes, she has appeared in five seasons so far and has never advanced beyond the quarterfinals. "I felt like I haven't been playing well this whole tournament, like I couldn't find a groove," the 23-year-old tennis star added.
Further talking about the pressure to continue with her winning streak and a possible No. 1 ranking on the line, Osaka added, "It's hard to say, but I do think like the last time I was in this seat, I wasn't really thinking at all about rankings, but someone asked me that question, so then I did start to ponder about it a lot. So maybe unwillingly that put pressure on myself. But I feel like even if it did, I should be able to rise above that. You know, I'm going to be asked various questions in the future anyway, so this is definitely something that shouldn't bother me as much as it did."
Osaka became US Open champion in the previous year. She had won her first and second Grand Slam title in the same style in 2018 and 2019.
Sakkari, on the other hand, clinched her sixth career win over a top-five opponent. "I just really enjoyed myself out there," she said. Her next match will be against No. 8-seeded Bianca Andreescu in the semifinals.
Picture credit: aljazeera.com
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