Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina registered three-set wins to set up a delicious quarter-final match-up at the 2019 Australian Open on Monday.
Osaka came back from a set down to defeat the No.13 seed Anastasija Sevastova and make it to her first ever Australian Open last eight round. In doing so, she entered her first ever Australian Open quarterfinal having been ousted in rounds three, two and four respectively over the last three years.
Having won the US Open last year, Osaka has now won 11 matches in a row at Grand Slams, but at one stage that run looked to be coming to an end when the Japanese player lost the first set to Sevastova.
But Osaka dug in and drew from her experience against Hsieh Su-Wei, saving a break point in the second set and then breaking the 13th seed to go on to clinch the set.
Osaka had the first break of serve in the third set and almost got another one but things turned around for Sevastova as she broke back to level the score at 3-3. Unfortunately for her, that was as far as it went for Sevastova before Osaka sealed it off by breaking her to go 5-4 up and then serving out the match.
37 winners and counting.@Naomi_Osaka_ is hitting pretty clean today!#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/dmiGsdUHyJ
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 21, 2019
Osaka will now take on the sixth seeded Elina Svitolina in what could be an exciting battle for the final four. Much like Osaka, Svitolina is also aiming for her first ever semi-final, and she endured a second set loss to Madison Keys in her fourth round match before making it to the quarters.
Svitolina won 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 in a see-saw battle to book her place in the quarter-finals.
Simona Halep plays Serena Williams and Karolina Pliskova takes on Garbine Muguruza in the other two women’s fourth round matches later today.
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