ANISIMOVA UPSETS DEFENDING CHAMPION
Within an hour of her third-round loss at the Australian Open, 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 early Friday morning (San Diego time), 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 four-time major champion.
In doing so, the 20-yearold American ensured that the so-called final-beforethe-final — a much-anticipated 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. “Like, I thought she played really well. But I can’t really look in the past anymore, you know?
“Like I just have to focus on what I can do in the future to hopefully evade those situations.”
Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep is into Week 2 at Melbourne Park for the fifth consecutive year.
The 14th-seeded Halep advanced on Friday night (San Diego time) with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Danka Kovinic, a player who is ranked 98th and eliminated U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu in the previous round.
This was Kovinic’s first appearance in the third round of a major.
Halep, in contrast, can count on plenty of experience in the latter stages of the sport’s biggest events. She won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019 and made it to the final of the 2018 Australian Open before losing to Caroline Wozniacki.
None of the other players remaining the women’s draw has 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.
In another third-round match, 27th-seeded Danielle Collins of the U.S. came back from a set and a break down to beat 19-year-old Clara Tauson 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Tauson was the last teenager left in either singles bracket.
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.
Osaka, one of the most powerful hitters in the women’s draw, praised Anisimova’s service returns and described how the ball kept coming back at her so low and fast that she couldn’t adjust her footwork to counter it.
“I just want to soak in this moment,” said Anisimova, who took out Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the second round. “It was an amazing match. It was very close. You know, there were a bit of nerves, and to play Naomi for the first time it’s unreal, honestly.”
Anisimova won her first WTA hardcourt title at a tuneup 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 U.S. Open.
After winning the title last year — her second at Melbourne Park in three years — Osaka withdrew from the French Open in the second round and skipped Wimbledon to take a break for her mental health. After her tearful exit at the U.S. Open, she took an extended layoff to reset and arrived at the year’s first major with a seeding of No. 13. She also brought a new approach, vowing to enjoy the game more and never again cry in a news conference.
Rafael Nadal wrapped up the Day 5 program on Rod Laver Arena by beating Olympic silver medalist Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and continuing his bid for a men’s record 21st Grand Slam title.
Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev had a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win earlier over Radu Albot, a 124th-ranked qualifier from Moldova. The thirdseeded Zverev will next play No. 14 Denis Shapovalov, who beat Reilly Opelka 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.