Naomi Osaka took care of business Sunday night in Toronto, defeating local favorite and No. 30 seed Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 22 minutes to reach the National Bank Open quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Toronto:\u00a0Scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Order of play<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Draws<\/a><\/p>\n “It’s a big confidence boost, but I’m the type of person who’s just happy to play more and more matches,” Osaka said in her on-court interview. “Coming back after pregnancy, I was really eager to play the best players, and now I’m able to play them and go toe-to-toe. So I’m just really happy about that.”<\/p>\n With the win, Osaka has now reached the quarterfinals at four consecutive WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz events she entered for the first time since 2021, with her current run consisting of last-eight showings at Bad Homburg, Wimbledon, Washington and now Toronto.<\/p>\n Osaka reaches peak efficiency in Round of 16 win<\/p>\n In the victory over Fernandez, the scoreboard stayed tight throughout, but Osaka consistently maintained the upper hand. After trading holds in the first two games, Osaka broke for 2-1 as the winners began to flow. A forehand for 0-15 and a crosscourt backhand that landed just inside the line for 0-30 set the tone, and Fernandez’s errors closed out the game.<\/p>\n After another forehand winner early in the next game, a run of miscues from Osaka allowed Fernandez to break right back for 2-2. But from there, Osaka was lights-out on serve and did just enough in the return game to stay in control. She broke to love for 4-3, saved two break points to hold for 5-3 and sealed the first set after 40 minutes when a Fernandez forehand sailed long.<\/p>\n Fernandez kept the scoreboard pressure on Osaka early in the second set, with the pair exchanging holds until 3-3. But the Canadian’s push proved to be fool’s gold with Osaka unlocking a higher gear as the match progressed. The four-time Grand Slam champion finished the second set with 15 winners to just one unforced error and won all 14 of her first-serve points — 100% for those scoring at home — while securing a decisive break for 4-3 on her way to the finish line.<\/p>\n “I think my serve helped me out a lot today. I just tried to be consistent when I could and not overplay too much,” Osaka said in her post-match press conference. “It gave me the upper hand when it went in.”<\/p>\n Overall, Osaka hit 29 winners to nine unforced errors, struck seven aces and won 76% of her first-serve points (29 of 38) en route to her second straight Canadian Open quarterfinal.<\/p>\n Osaka set for first meeting with Rybakina<\/p>\n It may be hard to believe, but Osaka’s impending quarterfinal against No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina will be their first career meeting. And Osaka is eager for the\u00a0challenge.<\/p>\n “She’s an amazing player. I’ve practiced with her twice — in Australia this year and also at Roland Garros,” Osaka said. “They have been really good practices, so I’m kind of excited for the match. She has a great serve, she’s aggressive, and for me, it’s very fun to play against the best players.”<\/p>\n Rybakina advanced with a gritty three-set win over Liudmila Samsonova earlier Sunday, rallying from a double break down in the third to prevail 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in 2 hours and 49 minutes.<\/p>\n Down two breaks in final set, Rybakina holds off Samsonova in Toronto last 16<\/p>\n It wasn’t the cleanest performance, but Rybakina was proud of the mental toughness she showed.<\/p>\n “I think the thing that I’m most proud of is that, even losing 3-0 in the third, I managed to win,” Rybakina said in her post-match press conference. “It was a bit unlucky in the first few games because of the net cord, and it didn’t go my way. But then I knew that if I’m going to fight, I can try to turn it around, so I’m glad it happened.”<\/p>\n Both Rybakina and Osaka will have a day to recharge before Tuesday’s quarterfinal, after which the winner will advance to face either No. 4 seed Coco Gauff or No. 12 seed Belinda Bencic for a spot in the final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka took care of business Sunday night in Toronto, defeating local favorite and No. 30 seed Leylah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,1602,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-733169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}