Garbine Muguruza found her match, and it was the one to take her out of the Australian Open Sunday. Naomi Osaka stayed tight with the Spaniard despite problems through three sets. Despite missed opportunities, she managed to pressure the 14th seed to falter 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 at Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park.
Two of tennis’s biggest stars met up for the first time in their careers to determine who would make the second week of competition. Both had yet to drop a set in their towards one another. Muguruza’s height and powerful forehand allowed her to dominate in nine of the last 11 matches played on the blue courts in Melbourne.
With her recent win against Zarina Diyas that lasted 14 games with the Kazak winning just two, the Spaniard knew that tactics wouldn’t fly with the Japanese powerhouse. Osaka held herself well against Caroline Garcia, allowing her five games in total. With so much on the line for both, the superstars would clash till one came through with a spot in the last eight.
The third seed fired away on the first ball, giving Muguruza a point before closing out the service game. She consolidated a break of the Spaniard for the early jump on the score. The 14th seed answered with a break back followed by a strong hold of serve in the fourth. Osaka got back on serve with a big push in the fifth, scoring the service to love. As they continued to feel one another out, Muguruza followed suit with the service hold in the sixth.
Osaka scored another serve to love, indicating that there was little wrong on her end. Muguruza stayed with the former world number one until a chance in the ninth came to fruition. The 14th seed took advantage of getting ahead in the ninth, turning the tide to break Osaka. With the service in hand for the set, Muguruza locked her offense in giving up just one point before closing the first in 31 minutes. Winning points at the baseline and limiting the number of unforced errors got her into position to try and break her opponent in the second.
Muguruza moved well against the serves of Osaka, who had trouble getting more points from her first serve. The Spaniard fired a serve to love in the second but couldn’t make it a third. The 23-year-old responded back with a shutout of the 14th seed, hoping to build upon her strike. Muguruza helped with a double fault in the fourth, suffering a break of serve in the process. A hold in the fifth gave the third seed another boost of momentum and the lead.
It wasn’t a safe one as last year’s finalist made it difficult for the 23-year-old, leveling the score at three-all, ending the slide. The next two games saw them deadlocked when an important hold for Osaka, who fired an ace at Muguruza took the penultimate 5-4 lead. Eyeing a chance to force a final set in the tenth, the two got to deuce on a long ball return from the third seed. When Muguruza failed to capture a shot at taking the game, the Japanese star locked it down with difficult serves taking the second in 33 minutes.
Osaka carried the momentum into the third, holding well in the first where she notched her eighth ace of the match. Muguruza didn’t let that faze her, scoring her third serve to love on the 2019 champion. They maintained service through four games until the fifth when Osaka got frustrated with her service, slamming the racket in response before losing the game. It got worse for the 23-year-old, who ran for every ball before one return fell long of the baseline. She came back from 0-30 to force deuce, but couldn’t convert the key breakpoint to get back on track. Muguruza was up two games until a must hold game from Osaka got her back within reach of level pegging the set.
Muguruza got into a pressure point as errors produced a breakpoint for the third seed. She answered it with a crosscourt ace to force deuce before gaining the AD point. With a shot at the match, Osaka denied her match point and then killed off the second to force deuce on serve. A strong offense got her through the ninth, holding serve, with Muguruza pressured to do it herself.
It was just where Osaka wanted her, taking control of the tenth growing break points before losing them on unforced errors. The 23-year-old found another one on a well-painted shot, breaking Muguruza with a well-placed crosscourt. The two took things into the 11th where Osaka opened up a 40-0 run, lost two points but held serve. The 14th seed felt the pressure once more in the 12th as she served to force a tiebreak.
Muguruza made a critical mistake that gave Osaka a jump on points. A huge miss fire gave the Japanese star three match points where the last rally ended on a long return from Muguruza killing her tournament dominance in 1 hour and 55 minutes.
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