Osaka overcomes teen, tantrum to reach 4th round
NEW YORK — Naomi Osaka spiked her racket after an errant forehand late in the second set at the U.S. Open, then flung it the length of the baseline after a missed backhand return ceded the tiebreaker.
Sometimes, that’s the sort of reaction it takes to right things for Osaka. And perhaps surprisingly, she needed whatever push she could get in Friday’s third-round match.
Facing an opponent competing in just her second major tournament, two-time Grand Slam champion Osaka eventually figured out a way to turn a tight one into a runaway and beat 18-year-old Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2 by claiming the final five games at Flushing Meadows.
“While I was playing, honestly, I was cursing myself out,” Osaka said, “so you wouldn’t want to know what I was saying.”
After taking things out on her racket, Osaka sat with a white towel draped over head during a changeover.
“It’s what I do in times of extreme anger and frustration,” she said.
Still, she improved to 7-0 since tennis resumed after a hiatus of more than five months because of the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s impressive, to be sure, but still a long way from what topranked Novak Djokovic has done in 2020. He’s 26-0 this season — and his winning streak dating to late last year is now at 29 matches — after a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 28 seed Jan-Lennard Struff on Friday night.
Djokovic’s bid for a fourth championship in New York and 18th Grand Slam title overall — Roger Federer, with 20, and Rafael Nadal, with 19, are the only men with more, and neither entered this tournament — will continue in the fourth round against 20th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta on Sunday.
Another past U.S. Open champion moving into the fourth round Friday was 2016 titlist Angelique Kerber, who defeated 20-year-old American Ann Li 6-3, 6-4. Kerber’s next opponent is another American, 28th-seeded Jennifer Brady, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Caroline Garcia.
In the previous round, Garcia upset top-seeded Karolina Pliskova.
Next up for Osaka will be big hitter Anett Kontaveit, an Estonian seeded 14th who beat No. 24 Magda Linette 6-3, 6-2.
Men reaching the fourth round included No. 5 Alexander Zverev, No. 7 David Goffin, No. 12 Denis Shapovalov — who won a five-setter over No. 19 Taylor Fritz — Jordan Thompson and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Zverev’s four-set win over No. 32 Adrian Mannarino began more than 2½ hours later than planned at Louis Armstrong Stadium after New York state got involved in whether Mannarino should be allowed to continue playing at all.
Mannarino is part of a group of seven players who were placed under extra restrictions during the tournament — including being tested every day for the coronavirus — because contact tracing determined they potentially could have been exposed to COVID-19 by Benoit Paire, the only entrant to test positive.
Mannarino said he found out about a half-hour before finally heading to the court to play that he was cleared.