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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n London: It is time to speak about Naomi Osaka\u2019s tennis, specifically on the green stuff.<\/p>\n The Japanese superstar \u2013 one of the 10 highest-paid female athletes on the planet \u2013 has generated more headlines for her walk-on outfits at grand slams<\/a> this year, but might be on her way to winning her maiden Wimbledon title.<\/p>\n That would have been an outlandish scenario not so long ago for a player who is historically an underachiever on grass courts.<\/p>\n But former world No.1 Osaka is changing that in real time, blasting 25 winners on Friday in dispatching Russian-born Australian Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-3, to reach the round of 16 at the All England club for the first time. She was particularly devastating in the opening set.<\/p>\n Related Article Up next is top seed Aryna Sabalenka, in a certain centre court blockbuster.<\/p>\n Sabalenka, who ousted Latvian firebrand Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets, has also never won a Wimbledon championship despite her long-term dominance on the WTA Tour.<\/p>\n After relatively struggling for so long on a surface that mystifies and befuddles many, Osaka is suddenly like a baby deer learning to walk.<\/p>\n \u201cI was expecting it to be a tough match for me because with [Osaka\u2019s] way of playing, honestly, grass must suit her well,\u201d Kasatkina said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019s starting to find her way on grass, and you can see this with the result as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Kasatkina\u2019s focus now shifts to her post-Wimbledon nuptials with her Olympic silver medal-winning figure skating fiancee Natalia Zabiiako in Athens, Greece.<\/p>\n They are coincidentally getting married on the same day as Australian top-10 star Alex de Minaur \u2013 who faces American Zachary Svajda on Saturday for a fourth-round berth \u2013 and British player Katie Boulter, in the week after Wimbledon finishes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have, like, 40 people. We\u2019ve been working on this for like a year, so I hope our guests are going to like it,\u201d Kasatkina said.<\/p>\n \u201cA few [players are attending]. I told them, \u2018If you play Athens 250, I will kill you\u2019. It\u2019s going to be great, honestly, and I\u2019m really looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Osaka had never won a match on Wimbledon\u2019s show court No.1 before the Kasatkina win \u2013 but there might be more firsts this fortnight if the 14th seed keeps this up after a difficult relationship with grass courts in the past.<\/p>\n Best known as a hardcourt specialist who has won two Australian Opens and two US Opens, she revealed after her first-round win this week that she had made a concerted effort to embrace the clay and grass-court seasons.<\/p>\n Funnily enough, Osaka\u2019s preparation for her Wimbledon title tilt came on a hard court with her Polish coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say he challenges me a lot to think outside the box,\u201d Osaka said.<\/p>\n \u201cComing into this grass season, we were doing a lot of things on hard court because where I train [in Los Angeles], they don\u2019t have a grass court. We were doing a lot of different things [designed to bring me forward in the court]. It made me understand grasscourt tennis a lot more.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when I was younger, I was a bit more stubborn on how I wanted to play on this surface, but I realise it\u2019s a lot more free-flowing.\u201d<\/p>\n Osaka spent 25 weeks at the top of the rankings in 2019 before Australia\u2019s Ash Barty took over until her retirement after her drought-busting Australian Open triumph four years ago.<\/p>\n Plenty has happened in between for Osaka.<\/p>\n She relinquished her US citizenship to retain her Japanese nationality in late 2019; withdrew mid-tournament from Roland-Garros in 2021 after earlier announcing she would not conduct post-match media conferences to preserve her mental health; and took a break from the tour to give birth to her daughter, Shae, in mid-2023.<\/p>\n Osaka has shown only glimpses of her peak self since \u2013 headlined by her US Open semi-final run last year \u2013 but has leaned into her love for fashion.<\/p>\n She strode onto Melbourne Park\u2019s Rod Laver Arena in January in a lavish, jellyfish-inspired outfit<\/a> then appeared at Roland-Garros in a glittering gold ensemble<\/a> before honouring her Japanese heritage with an extravagant white kimono at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n Related Article Unlike other players, Osaka prefers the focus to be on her clothing than what she is doing with her racquet.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some ways, I feel like I\u2019m a lot more equipped to talk about my clothes than to talk about my tennis,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s strange because I\u2019ve been playing tennis for 20-something years [yet] some days I don\u2019t feel like an expert on it.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the other women to advance were dual grand slam champion Coco Gauff and 2025 semi-finalist Belinda Bencic, while 2024 US Open finalist Jessica Pegula and rising star Iva Jovic set up an all-American showdown for a quarter-final spot.<\/p>\n On the men\u2019s side, world No.1 Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic remain on a semi-final collision course.<\/p>\n Sinner downed American Jenson Brooksby 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, but Djokovic had to work harder to see off 25th-seeded Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7-4), capped by a spectacular match point where both men ended up falling to the court.<\/p>\n Djokovic will likely have to get past Canadian third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who beat qualifier Michael Zheng in straight sets, in the quarter-finals to face Sinner.<\/p>\n Fellow qualifiers Roman Safiullin and Shintaro Mochizuki progressed with respective wins over young guns Joao Fonseca and Rafael Jodar, while resurgent German Jan-Lennard Struff eliminated Daniil Medvedev, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a strange feeling to play Jannik [next] at Wimbledon, especially now this year. I was not winning much before coming here, and I don\u2019t know how I have been winning matches here,\u201d Mochizuki said.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cI\u2019m excited, but at the same time, I feel a little bit strange to be here in the round of 16. I just want to keep enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n Marc McGowan travelled to London with Tennis Australia\u2019s support.<\/p>\n Watch Wimbledon from 7.30pm (AEST) nightly on the Nine Network and Stan Sport.<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Naomi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6850e76b7e6bbf82bde4167787f85940149eb3cd.jpeg\")
Naomi Osaka continues to make headlines for her glamorous walk-on outfits.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783168831_872_948e9db93d89b01f5003a0111d612eddc15d58efc756da294baae5875c275883.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Daria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/616024efdcbf952dfcc1bb9f031d2cab618249b1.jpeg\")
Daria Kasatkina could not match Naomi Osaka.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Osaka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/81711ffb2952817422ad52403938a9c54cd5713c.jpeg\")
Osaka is embracing grass-court tennis after struggling on the surface previously.AP Photo\/Kin Cheung<\/p>\n![\"Daria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bc21098d92bbe6431225ad126eb05795608ba8f9.jpeg\")
Daria Kasatkina\u2019s mini-resurgence in the second set was short-lived.AP Photo\/Brian Inganga<\/p>\n![\"Naomi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/070fb95bed773a1615198301206b20f01596c959385996a97756ef4c741c51ba.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783049536_404_355a1959bb0d3c70eb26ce17a4a409a03dd67b8d.jpeg\")
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