Osaka tosses racket, but overcomes test from teen

NEW YORK — Naomi Osaka spiked her racket after one 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 that 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 thirdround match.

Facing an opponent competing in just her second major tournament, twotime 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 during an on-court interview afterward, “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.

Another past U.S. Open champion moving into the fourth round Friday was 2016 titlist Angelique Kerber, who defeated 20-yearold American Ann Li 6-3, 6-4. Kerber’s next opponent is another American, 28thseeded Jennifer Brady, a 6-3, 6-3 winner against 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. She had a much easier time in a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 24 Magda Linette.

Men reaching the fourth round included No. 7 David Goffin, No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta, Jordan Thompson and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Denis Shapovalov rallied late in the fourth set and won a five-set match between rising stars.

The 21-year-old Canadian smashed his racket on the court — leaving it bent and spent — while falling behind 22-year-old American Taylor Fritz, who had a chance to serve it out leading 5-3 in the fourth set.

Shapovalov broke Fritz’s serve, won the tiebreaker and pulled out a 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 win to reach the fourth round.

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic was scheduled to play at night against No. 28 JanLennard Struff.

In an odd and unexplained delay, the thirdround match between No. 5 seed Alexander Zverev and No. 32 Adrian Mannarino began more than 21⁄2 hours later than planned in Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The U.S. Tennis Association described the holdup in vague terms, saying only there was “a collaborative dialogue with health officials” and that the players were “updated at all times.”

The USTA added in its statement that no other details would be provided because of what it called “the sensitivity of the medical issues involved.”

Mannarino is part of a group of seven players under extra restrictions during the tournament because contact tracing determined they potentially could have been exposed to COVID-19 by Benoit Paire, the only entrant to test positive.

With shadows creeping across the Arthur Ashe Stadium court in the early afternoon, the 137th-ranked Kostyuk certainly had her chances to pull off a significant surprise.

The key moment: Kostyuk held five break points that could have given her a 3-1 lead in the final set.

“A turning point,” Osaka would say later.

She fended off every one of those and held to 2-all, beginning her match-closing run.

“I’m kind of scared how she’s going to be in the future,” said Osaka, who played with tape wrapping her left hamstring, which has been a problem since last week. “She has no fear.”