Since returning to tennis, Naomi Osaka has often faced stacked Grand Slam draws as an unseeded player — a recurring challenge that\u2019s left her frustrated.<\/p>\n
But after reaching the final in Montreal in late July, Osaka arrived in New York seeded at a major for the first time since her comeback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, she\u2019s back in a Grand Slam semifinal.<\/p>\n
The two-time US Open champion defeated No. 11 seed Karolina Muchova 6-4, 7-6 (3), Wednesday night to advance to her third semifinal in New York and fifth overall at a major.<\/p>\n
US Open: Draws<\/a> | Scores<\/a> | Order of Play<\/a><\/p>\n This one, though, carries added significance: it\u2019s her first Grand Slam semifinal since becoming a mother.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really inspired by all the moms on tour,\u201d Osaka said after the match. \u201cBut I also have this feeling like I\u2019m not doing good enough or that I\u2019m being left behind. And I think when all the moms came back and they did well off the bat, I sort of felt like something was wrong with me. I know that Belinda [Bencic] made the semis of Wimbledon, so I just really felt like I was losing a race in some sort of weird way.<\/p>\n \u201cSo yeah, that was on my mind, but now I\u2019m here and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n Watching her fire winner after winner in front of a roaring Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, it was clear that Osaka had something to prove — and she delivered.<\/p>\n The opening set was tightly contested; with both players holding serve through the first nine games. The only break point in that span came in the very first game, when Muchova threatened early. Osaka erased it with a forehand winner — one of many she unleashed throughout the night.<\/p>\n Then, almost out of nowhere, Osaka broke Muchova in the final game of the set, forcing the Czech — who had reached the US Open semifinals each of the past two years — into a trio of uncharacteristic errors.<\/p>\n After the match, Osaka likened the play as you get deeper into a Grand Slam to boxing — \u201cbut with a tennis ball, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n To understand what she meant, all you had to do was watch the second set.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Following an off-court visit with the physio between sets, Muchova returned with renewed energy and broke Osaka to begin the second set. It snapped a streak of 18 consecutive service holds for Osaka.<\/p>\n But Osaka, showing the grit of a four-time Grand Slam champion and the resilience of a mother, broke right back.<\/p>\n And when Muchova broke again at 4-all, setting herself up to serve for the second set, Osaka responded with a forehand smash winner to break at love.<\/p>\n Locked into the moment, Osaka said she couldn\u2019t recall what was going through her mind at that stage of the match.<\/p>\n \u201cI honestly don\u2019t even remember it,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cBut she\u2019s one of the toughest players that I\u2019m able to play and I\u2019ve played her so many times. She\u2019s beaten me a couple of times and she beat me here last year, so I knew it was going to be a really tough match.\u201d<\/p>\n After saving two break points, Osaka and Muchova traded holds to send the second set to a tiebreak. Before you could blink, Osaka raced out to a 6-2 lead. Two match points later, she sealed her place in the semifinals.<\/p>\n Among players who began their careers in the Open era, Osaka is the third woman to win each of her first five Grand Slam quarterfinals, joining Chris Evert and Aryna Sabalenka.<\/p>\n Speaking of Sabalenka, she\u2019ll face Jessica Pegula in the first semifinal Thursday night. Meanwhile, Osaka will meet Amanda Anisimova with a spot in the US Open final on the line.<\/p>\n Anisimova holds a 2-0 record against Osaka at the WTA level, having won both of their previous meetings at Grand Slams in 2022 — first at the Australian Open, then again at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n Osaka anticipates a challenge as she looks for her first win against the American.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely going to be really tough,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cI\u2019ve played her twice and I\u2019ve lost both times. She\u2019s so talented and she\u2019s able to hit a winner from anywhere. So, I know it\u2019s going to be tough, and I really like her as a person too, so I\u2019m cheering for her.\u201d<\/p>\n She smiled and clarified: \u201cI\u2019m not cheering for her against me, but yeah, it\u2019s going to be fun. Plus, she\u2019s American, and you know, this tournament means a lot to her as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since returning to tennis, Naomi Osaka has often faced stacked Grand Slam draws as an unseeded player —…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,1959],"class_list":{"0":"post-131430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}