Australian Open: Naomi Osaka overpowers Karolina Pliskova to reach final
The 21-year-old Naomi Osaka has never played in the quarter-final of the Australian Open before and she will now fight for the second Grand Slam title after a hard-fought 6-2 4-6 6-4 win over the 7th seed Karolina Pliskova in an hour and 54 minutes. The US Open champion will have a chance to win back-to-back Major titles as the first player since Serena Williams in 2015 and whoever wins the Saturday's battle between Petra Kvitova and Naomi Osaka will become the new world no. 1 on Monday. It was a high-quality match under the roof on the Rod Laver Arena and Naomi just did enough to cross the finish line first, blasting 15 aces and dominating with her first serve.
Both players struggled on the second serve and there were 19 break points up for grabs, with Pliskova converting two out of eight and Osaka who scored four breaks from 11 opportunities to emerge as the winner. The Japanese controlled the place with booming 56 winners and 30 unforced errors while the Czech stayed on a 20-21 ratio, unable to produce more damage with her first serve or to impose her forehand. Pliskova saved a break point in the opening game of the match before Osaka placed a backhand down the line winner to draw first blood in the third game, securing another break at 4-2 after a double fault from Karolina to extend the lead.
Serving for the set in the eighth game, Naomi fired two aces to close the opener 6-2 in just 32 minutes, looking mighty good on the court and hoping for more of the same in the rest of the encounter. They traded breaks at the start of the second set and Pliskova fends off a couple of break points in game three as well to gain the confidence, serving well in the rest of the set and keeping the pressure on Osaka who failed to endure it. The Japanese saved a break point at 3-4 with a powerful forehand before losing serve at love in game ten to hand the set to her opponent and set up a decider.
There, Osaka had to dig deep in game two as well, repelling three break points to gain the momentum, breaking Karolina at love in the very next game to forge a crucial advantage. Serving at 4-3, Naomi erased a break point with an ace and she sealed the deal with two winners at 30-30 in the 10th game, celebrating a huge win and the place in the second Grand Slam final.
Semi-final result:
[4]Naomi Osaka (JPN) vs [7]Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 6-2 4-6 6-4
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2CFh7k3
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