Simona Halep survived a thrilling encounter against 18-year-old Naomi Osaka to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, in the third round of the French Open.
Halep, who recently won her 12th WTA title in Madrid, was the clear favourite against the Japanese underdog. Osaka has never played a top-10 player prior to the French Open and she has never won a title on either the WTA or ITF circuit. Regardless of this, it was the underdog that won over the crowd at the start of the match.
Osaka, who describes herself as ’an aggressive baseline player’, produced the talent she has during a turbulent first set for both players. The 18-year-old displayed no nerves in her maiden French Open tournament by taking the early break for 2-1. The early break triggered a strong response from the sixth seed as Halep retrieved the break before moving ahead 4-2. With the odds against her, Osaka responded impressively by drawing level once again at 4-4. Regardless of her inexperience, Osaka gave herself the chance to serve for the set after a stunning forehand return rewarded her with yet another break. This time she was able to consolidate the break as a deep forehand forced the former French Open finalist to return the ball to the net.
A 18 ans Naomi Osaka n’a pas froid aux yeux. 1ère manche empochée face à Simona Halep #RG16 https://t.co/BZtAyGjOXw
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) 27 May 2016
The high standard of tennis produced by the youngest player left in the women’s draw came to an abrupt halt at the start of the second set. An error-stricken performance by the Japanese player, consisting of nine unforced errors in two games, allowed Halep to regain her momentum and race to 3-0. The inconsistency in Osaka’s game enabled Halep to force the match into a deciding set with relative ease.
Halep’s frustration in the match became more visible as she saved a break point in her first game of the final set. The Madrid Open champion produced the occasional outburst on the court with a series of Romanian sayings. Regardless on her negative mentality, the world No.6 continued being the dominant force on the Suzanne-Lenglen Court as she was gifted a break for 3-1 following two consecutive errors from Osaka. The positive run in Halep’s favour stopped when Osaka once again produced an array of impressive winners to retrieve the break. The resurgence from the 18-year-old was still not enough to cause the upset. Breaking Osaka to love, Halep gifted herself a chance to serve for the match. On her first match point, the world No.6 clinched the tricky win after a deep forehand failed to be returned from Osaka.
“It was a very tough match. She played unbelievable and she is a very good player.” Halep said about Osaka following her win.
“I was a bit nervous towards the end and I want to apologise for my racket (abuse). I was too nervous and couldn’t control (my emotions).” She candidly admitted.
The world No.6 will now play in the fourth round of the French Open for only the second time in her career.
Garbine Muguruza Eases into the last 16
Garbine Muguruza has continued her quest for a maiden grand slam title with a convincing 6-3, 6-0, win over Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer.
The fourth seed spent only spent only 63 minutes on the court as she fired 19 winners and won 72% of her first service points. The triumph takes Muguruza to the last sixteen in Roland Garros for the third consecutive time in her career.
“I played very well. I wanted to win this match very much.” Muguruza said after her third round win.
“I am very motivated here in Roland Garros and hopefully I can continue this.”
Muguruza is bidding to become the first Spanish woman to win the tournament since Arantxa Sánchez Vicario back in 1998. In the next round she will play either Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Svetlana Kuznetsova.
