Naomi Osaka reigns supreme to capture her 1st title in Japan
There wasn't any magic tricks this time for Naomi Osaka to pull in saving grace and face at the Toray Pan event in Osaka, Japan. There wasn't any opponent given that Naomi Osaka didn't dictate her shots with from the onset of the matches. She cleanly defeated Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova 7-5, 6-3 and walked off the court with a bag full of confidence. Some say 'you're only as good as your last stance' but for Osaka who at times breathed with defiance and self-doubt, didn't show much of that in her rounds at Toray Pan not even over the Bulgarian qualifier. She spun shots and blasted them. She opened up the court and let it rip. She even had a good amount of aces, over a dozen to call the match hers. Osaka reeked with a lot of consistency and self-assuredness despite a bit of changes from her team.
The young Japanese had recently released the services of her coach Jermaine Jenkins. It was with his coaching that she's reache donly one semifinal round. Recently she's had difficult times keeping in form and has had injuries. She never even gotten past the fourth round of a slam after winning the U.S. Open. She learned to look past all of those incidentals and concentrated on her game. "I'm super grateful for the time we spent...and the things i learned on and off the court...now is an appropriate time for change," she wrote on Twitter about their split. It was obvious she had let bygones be bygones as there wasn't even the slightest sight of an ailing knee of which she had bandaged up at the U.S. Open when she was defeated by Belinda Bencic in the fourth round.
Toray's opening round she got her rhythm and slammed a cross court plus dived for balls but somehow the Bulgarian managed to go up 3-0. It was with a bag onher left thigh she routinely does that woke her up resulting in her win of the first round in Osaka. She knew her downfalls and admitted "I know in the first set, I just started slow...in the second set, I just made a lot of really bad decisions..." Osaka said. She had the confidence in her shots and said of dictating how the match would go. It was refreshing to see her take control and execute shots she needed to win.
As she reached the quarterfinals her duel with Russia's Yulia Putintseva was a reversal of performance as she didn't trail 3-0 like with Tomova, but lead and dictated shots from the first ball struck. Acute cross courts she has mastered against the Russian forcing her to net returns. Confidence and executing in shotmaking for Osaka grew and soon she led 5-1. Put Putintseva didn't see herself going out that way and came back with three more games. It was Osaka who pushed down on the gas and won the first set 6-4 in 44 minutes. The Japanese's control contined as she led in the second set. Unfortunately Putintseva dived for a ball and rolled her ankle. It was an immediate on court medical time out that helped the Russian get up off the court but a few balls later the game belonged to Osaka.
The mood was set for the semifinal with Elise Mertens but Naomi showed too much aggression and proved in her style of play that she wanted to put forth a good show for her fellow Japanese to make them proud. Games were leveled 3-all but those forehand stingers caught Mertens in the corners of the court and Osaka easily took the first set 6-4 and soon the second 6-1.
Coming out to the final on Center Court in Osaka, was more like a dream than a reality for Naomi and the championship with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkov was no different than her other rounds at Toray Pan. She was glad to start proving herself and to have self-assurance on the court. Osaka led by 4-1 in the opening set but the match appeared to have her name on it as even a lob at set point went over the Russian's head and smack right on the baseline for a winner. While a netcord from Pavlyuchenkova started the next set looked like a point earned, Osaka came back down the line with a perfect forehand blast being the winner. The Russian never led the match and for long Osaka had won her title 6-2,6-3. She gave a traditional heritage short nod, hugged the opponent at net and waved her racket to all of her fans who came near and many far to see a great performance by Naomi Osaka. She never dropped a set the entire tournament and the only struggle might have been coming up with some Japanese to converse to her Asian fans. Pavlyuchenkova was clearly outplayed by her opponent saying "Congrats Naomi you played really good tennis..." But it was the winner and twice grand slam champ, Naomi Osaka who felt pleased and accomplished ending a wonderfully successful week saying "it's really special for me to win here. This is the City I was born in and it gave me a lot of power to play here."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2Qq29bT
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