By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Suite life has helped Naomi Osaka embrace her tennis fandom.
Tonight, Osaka stepped out of the suite and onto the US Open’s biggest stage solidifying her status as a premier power player.
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On a day in which six seeds, including top-seeded Karolina Pliskova tumbled out of the draw, Osaka obliterated the dangerous Camilia Giorgi 6-1, 6-2 to roll into the US Open third round for the fifth straight year.
" I think for me, just playing Camila, I haven't played her in a while, but I know that she goes for things," Osaka said. "For me it's really helpful mentally just because I know she's capable of finishing points. It gives me motive to, like, play better, so she's not able to hit winners."
Playing with full strapping around her left hamstring she strained during last week’s Western & Southern Open, Osaka showed no signs of stress and drained the drama from a potentially tricky match-up.
"The leg tape, I didn't do so well in my last match because...I don't know," Osaka said. "Should I be telling you this? Yeah, I guess you could say it's preventative. Yeah, let's just go with that."
It was an efficient win with brief rallies that didn’t overtax her hamstring and was far less physically demanding than Osaka’s three-set win over Misaki Doi in her opener. Most importantly, Osaka exuded positive energy and full focus from the pre-match warm-up through the final ball.
The 2018 US Open champion set the tone on serve surrendering just seven points on her first serve and denying both break points she raising her career US Open record to 16-3.
As a young girl growing up in Long Island, Osaka attended the US Open with her family. She spent her afternoon yesterday enjoying life as a tennis fan watching Andy Murray’s epic five-set comeback conquest of Yoshihito Nishioka from the Arthur Ashe Stadium corporate suite turned seeded players’ private lounge.
The experience motivated her for tonight’s match.
“For me, it’s very inspiring yesterday I watched Murray play Nishioka and that was really fun and they both played so well,” Osaka told ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi yesterday. “Honestly, both of them are my top five favorite players so I was really sad that they had to play each other.
“It’s really motivating to step outside and see really good tennis—it’s like it’s in your front door.”
The enigmatic Giorgi can be both explosive and erratic—sometimes in successive points. In the early stages, Giorgi’s grip-and-rip style saw her shoot down her own serve bouncing a double fault on her side of the net as Osaka streaked to a 4-0 lead.
The fourth-seeded Osaka unleashed a 107 mph blast bolting to a 5-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Tactical acumen has seldom been a strength for the talented Italian, who stubbornly remained fixed on crowding the baseline—and kept feeling the heat from Osaka.
The second se was more of the same as the two-time Grand Slam champion zapped a 107 mph ace down the T slamming shut a Giorgi threat to hold for a 3-1 second-set lead.
A frustrating evening for Giorgi was beyond salvaging when she stuffed a second serve off the tape donating another break and a 5-2 second-set lead.
When Giorgi sailed one final return Osaka was through in 70 minutes—and got a surprise celebratory greeting from her mom, Tamaki, who greeted her daughter with a series of emojis.
When Osaka’s in this happy space she will be tough to beat on the fast Flushing Meadows courts.
Next up for Osaka is Marta Kostyuk, who beat 31st-seeded Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 7-6, one round after the Latvian knocked off Coco Gauff.