Osaka enjoys her finest hour yet at U.S. Open
NEW YORK — Naomi Osaka charged into the first Grand Slam semifinal by a Japanese woman in 22 years, routing Lesia Tsurenko, 6-1, 6-1, on Wednesday in the U.S. Open quarter-finals.
The No. 20 seed continued what’s been a largely dominant run through the draw by winning in just 57 minutes, the third time in her five matches she didn’t even have to play an hour.
Osaka moved from Japan to New York at age 3, and her deepest major run is coming at the same tournament she first visited as a child.
“Well, it definitely means a lot for me, and I always thought if I were to win a Grand Slam, the first one I’d want to win is the U.S. Open, because I have grown up here and, like, then my grandparents can come and watch,” she said. “I think it would be really cool.”
She raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set and then 4-0 in the second against the shaky Tsurenko, who finished with more unforced errors than points in her first major quarter-final.
Osaka will face either 14thseeded Madison Keys or No. 30 Carla Suarez Navarro in the first major semifinal appearance for a Japanese woman since Kimiko Date reached the final four at Wimbledon in 1996.
Osaka was followed on Arthur Ashe Stadium by Kei Nishikori facing Marin Cilic in a men’s quarter-final.
Together, Osaka and Nishikori were the first Japanese woman and man to make the quarterfinals of the same Grand Slam since Date and Shuzo Matsuoka at Wimbledon in 1995.
The 20-year-old said she was nervous, claiming to be “freaking out inside” — though it certainly never showed.
“Just like my entire body was shaking, so I’m really glad I was able to play well today,” she said.
She won 59 points to just 28 for the unseeded Ukrainian, who knocked off No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.
But Tsurenko said she was sick Wednesday, waking up with a sore throat and not breathing well.
“Unfortunately during this tournament I had many issues with my health, and today was not my day obviously. I was not feeling well,” she said.
Osaka had consecutive 50-minute matches earlier in the tournament. She was finally tested in the round of 16, edging past No. 26 Aryna Sabalenka,
6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in a little more than two hours, but she was back in complete control against Tsurenko, winning 20 of 22 points (91 per cent) on her first serve.
Tsurenko was off from the minute she stepped onto Arthur Ashe Stadium. She often failed to make Osaka do anything special to win a point and finished with 31 unforced errors.