Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – Naomi Osaka is hoping her success last year in Montreal, where she finished runner-up to Victoria Mboko, will translate as the WTA’s 1000 event in Canada shifts to Toronto. The four-time Grand Slam champion from Japan is coming off a semi-final run on the hard courts of Washington, where she fell to eventual champion Alexandra Eala of the Philippines.
“I did better than last year in DC, so I’m just hoping to keep the ball rolling,” Osaka said. “I haven’t historically played super, super well here, so I’m just hoping to change that this year.”
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I can try to recall Montreal, but I would like to kind of treat the cities separately,” added Osaka, whose best run in Toronto, which alternates hosting duties with Montreal each year, was a quarter-final appearance back in 2019. The former world number one is seeded 11th this year and aiming to build momentum as the August 31 start of the US Open approaches.
Osaka earned the last of her four major titles at the 2021 Australian Open and has yet to regain the heights she reached before taking an extended maternity leave in 2023. But she made it to the US Open semi-finals last year and reached the last 16 at the French Open for the first time this year before a career-best quarter-final at Wimbledon.
“I would just hope to gain a lot of confidence leading into New York,” she said. “I lost my last match, but it’s helped me figure out what I want to do exactly, or how I want to take my tennis.”
Osaka, who will face either Germany’s Eva Lys or Hungarian Panna Udvardy in her second-round opener, is in the same quarter as second-seeded Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina. In the fourth round, she could find herself up against fifth-seeded Mirra Andreeva, but the Russian will first have to get past her own tricky second-round meeting with former world number one Karolina Pliskova, who beat Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-4, 6-4 on Monday.
Rain delays on Sunday made for a jam-packed schedule on the second day of first round play. Among the winners, Poland’s Magdalena Frech defeated France’s Leolia Jeanjean 7-5, 6-3 to line up a meeting with third-seeded two-time champion Jessica Pegula. Pegula beat Frech last week on the way to the final in Washington, where the American fell to Eala in the rain-delayed title match on Monday.
In other early matches, American Kayla Day beat Diane Parry of France 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to book a clash with fourth-seeded Coco Gauff. World number one Aryna Sabalenka is the top seed in the tournament. After disappointing runs at the French Open and Wimbledon, the Belarusian is aiming to reassert her dominance on hard courts, where her lone defeat this year was to Rybakina in the Australian Open final.
© 2024 AFP
