Malta Independent

Osaka loses to Muchova in 3 sets at Madrid Open

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Second-ranked Naomi Osaka is out of the Madrid Open as Karolina Muchova won 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in the second round on Sunday.

Muchova eased through the deciding set to earn her third win against a top 10 opponent this year. The 20th-ranked Czech was a semifinali­st at the Australian Open, which was won by Osaka in February.

"It was a tough match today, but we had some preparatio­n," Muchova said. "I was ready to play with all I had today, and to use all the weapons I could and (do) what I can."

Osaka was coming off a quarterfin­al loss to Maria Sakkari in Miami.

"On the third set I felt I just started off really bad and I couldn't afford to do that," Osaka said.

Muchova next faces 16thseeded Sakkari, who defeated Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 6-1.

Anastasia Pavlyuchen­kova beat sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 7-5, while fifthseede­d Aryna Sabalenka defeated Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-3.

In the men's draw, 11thseeded Denis Shapovalov won 90% of his first-serve points to beat Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 6-3 and reach the second round. American Tommy Paul defeated

Pedro Martínez 6-4, 7-5.

Basilashvi­li beats Struff in Munich Open final for 5th title

Nikoloz Basilashvi­li clinched his second title of the year with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory over JanLennard Struff in the final of the Munich Open on Sunday.

The fifth-seeded Basilashvi­li, who won in Qatar in March, started well and resumed after a 30-minute rain interrupti­on to win his fifth ATP title.

Basilashvi­li lost just three service points in the 35-minute first set, and he saved the only break point he faced in the sixth game. Both players served well in the tiebreaker until Struff struck a backhand into the net.

Basilashvi­li won two matches on Saturday to reach the final. His quarterfin­al with Norbert Gombos was suspended Friday due to rain. The Georgian player completed a 6-4, 6-4 win before sweeping past Casper Ruud 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals.

Basilashvi­li did not drop a set in five matches in Munich and now has a 5-2 career record in finals.

Though he lost, the 44thranked Struff shed his record of being the highest-ranked men's player yet to have played an ATP singles final.

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