Naomi Osaka started her 2021 Australian Open campaign in impressive style with a 6-1 6-2 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The Japanese player, 23, won the Melbourne Grand Slam in 2019. She also won the last major tournament she played in – the 2020 US Open – before opting not to play at the French Open in October.
“I was really nervous coming into this match,” Osaka said in her on-court interview. “I played her before and it was really tough so I just wanted to play well.”
The World No.3 continued, “I think physically everyone feels like their body is shocked, coming in and playing matches so suddenly after such a long break. But I think we’re all getting used to it and all in all everyone is just really happy to be here.”
Osaka charges out of the blocks
Osaka made a stunning start. She won both of her first two service games to love and she relentlessly hunted down two breaks to open up a 4-0 lead.
Pavlyuchenkova was not even playing badly. She struck the ball well and got into good positions to win both of her service games. Unfortunately for her, the World No.3 seemed determined to make it hard as possible for her to win any game, and she fought back to get the breaks.
In the fifth game, Osaka’s level finally dropped. She made a few errors which allowed the Russian to break her serve and reduce the deficit to 4-1.
The Japanese player re-discovered her rhythm in the next game. She struck the ball superbly – just as she had in the first four games – and broke Pavlyuchenkova for the third time in a row.
Osaka looked so confident by this stage. She clinically closed out the first set 6-1 with a comfortable hold.
Osaka responds well to improvement from Pavlyuchenkova
Pavlyuchenkova battled to her first hold of the match at the start of the second set. But she was unable to put any pressure on Osaka’s serve, and the Japanese player held easily.
Then the World No.3 raised her level. She hit a blistering forehand winner that zipped past Pavlyuchenkova to make it 15-30 and sealed the break two points later with a classy backhand pass.
Both players held relatively comfortably to move the score along to 3-2 in Osaka’s favour. Then the Russian unleashed a series of huge forehands to give herself half a chance of a break at deuce. However, the Japanese player held on to maintain her lead.
Osaka went after Pavlyuchenkova’s serve again and she was rewarded with another break. She then re-focused after falling 0-30 behind to hold and seal her place in the second round.
