Osaka looking on bright side
Defending champion refuses to dwell on what might have been
Within an hour of her third-round loss at the Australian Open in Melbourne, defending champion Naomi Osaka had consigned it to the past.
It’s part of her new resolution for 2022. No dwelling on what’s already happened.
Osaka had two match points against 60th-ranked Amanda Anisimova in the third set, and she missed two backhands.
Anisimova held serve to force a tiebreaker, which she dominated, and finished with an ace for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) comeback victory over the fourtime major champion.
In doing so, the 20-year-old American ensured that the so-called final-before-the-final — a muchanticipated fourth-round showdown between Osaka and top-ranked Ash Barty — won’t happen.
“I’m not sure if I’m going to have regrets about those two match points,” Osaka said.
“I thought she played really well. But I can’t really look in the past anymore, you know?
“I just have to focus on what I can do in the future.”
Anisimova, who had lost her previous nine matches against top 20 players and had to rebound from a set and a break down to survive her first-round match, hit 46 winners to Osaka’s 21.
“I just want to soak in this moment,” said Anisimova, who beat Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the second round. “It was an amazing match. It was very close. There were a bit of nerves, and to play Naomi for the first time . . . it’s unreal.”
Anisimova won her first WTA hardcourt title at a tune-up tournament in Melbourne this month and is now on an eight-match winning streak — the longest of her career in main draw matches.
It’s the fourth time Osaka has been unable to defend a major title, and the 11th time in her 21 trips to Grand Slam events she has been knocked out in the third round, including last year’s US Open.
Anisimova will now play Barty tonight, who is hoping to become the first Australian woman to win the championship since 1978.
She advanced to the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over 30th-seeded Camila Giorgi and has conceded only eight games and spent less than three hours on court.
Also into the fourth round is twotime Grand Slam champion Simona Halep, who progressed to week two at Melbourne Park for the fifth consecutive year.
The 14th-seeded Halep advanced with a 6-2, 6-1 victory yesterday over Danka Kovinic, a player who is ranked 98th and eliminated US Open champion Emma Raducanu in the previous round.
“I feel good, I feel more confident now because last year was a tough year,” Halep said. “So now I just enjoy playing tennis, I’m happy.”
None of the other players left in the women’s draw have won as many tour-level titles as Halep’s 23. Halep’s next opponent will be Alize Cornet, who celebrated her 32nd birthday with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over No 29 Tamara Zidansek, a 2021 French Open semifinalist.
Cornet followed up her upset of No 3 Garbine Muguruza by reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open for the first time since 2009.
Second seed Aryna Sabalenka also moved into the fourth round with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over No 31 Marketa Vondrousova.
After her second-round match, when she had nine double faults in her first two service games and 19 in the
match, Sabalenka reduced that glaring match statistic to 10.
“I’m really happy right now — mostly I’m happy I made only 10 double-faults,” Sabalenka said, laughing.
A two-time major semifinalist, Sabalenka conceded she had “had some trouble” recently with her serve, but added: “I’ll just keeping working on the serve.”
She’ll next play No 115ranked Kaia Kanepi, who beat Australian wildcard entry Maddison Inglis 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Kanepi has reached the quarter-finals six times at Grand Slam events, but never reached the last eight at the
Australian Open.