Naomi Osaka‘s China Open campaign came to a sudden halt after coming the wrong end of a three-set thriller against Karolina Muchova in the last-16 of the penultimate WTA 1000 tournament of the year. The last of which is coming next week at the Wuhan Open, but Osaka has got bigger priorities than competing in the tournament.
The 2019 champion in Beijing saw an opportunity to battle for more silverware with a number of big names having departed in the early rounds. The 12th seed had defeated Maria Timofeeva and Sara Bejlek to set up a highly anticipated fourth round tie against Muchova.
It is fair to say that it went a lot better than their encounter in Bad Homburg earlier this year. Osaka was searching for her first WTA title since the 2021 Australian Open, but an achilles injury saw an abrupt end to that conquest, losing to the Czech 6-1, 1-0. They again clashed on grass in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. A much closer contest, but again Muchova had the measure of the four-time Grand Slam champion as she prevailed 7-6(4), 6-4.
Their third and most recent meeting of 2026 came in the Chinese capital and was a remarkable match. After trailing 4-1, Muchova won six of the next seven games to win the first set in sublime fashion. 33 minutes later, Osaka got back level. This time, she converted a 4-1 lead into a comfortable set win to force a decider.
Osaka had a break lead, but Muchova soon took command. While on serve, she created numerous match points but kept squandering them. It went to a tiebreak, with her ninth opportunity finally being converted. Osaka, who could not create any match points, finally departed the tournament.