Auckland, Jan 3 (IANS) Former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka moved into her first WTA semifinal in nearly three years after a 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-2 quarterfinal victory over Hailey Baptiste at the ASB Classic on Friday.
Osaka survived two brief rain interruptions during the match before closing out rising American Baptiste after 2 hours and 2 minutes of play.
The Japanese sailed into her first tour-level semifinal since she returned from maternity leave 12 months ago. The last time she made the final four or better at a WTA event was her runner-up finish at 2022 Miami, where she lost to Iga Swiatek. She made two quarterfinals last year (Doha and ‘s-Hertogenbosch).
“I think the key focuses that I had were just to have a lot of belief and confidence in myself. I think I put a lot of work in throughout last year, and even though the results didn’t show it, I think I’m just continuing to, I guess, try as hard as I can and see where it gets me,” Osaka said on court after her win.
Osaka was forced to pull off a comeback to hold off 23-year-old Baptiste, who was playing her first career WTA quarterfinal.
“Baptiste is an amazing player. It sucks that she was injured, but I think we played a really high-quality match, and in a weird way I’m glad to have played a three-set match because I think that’s kind of the experience I need,” Osaka said.
Both players had 10 unforced errors in the first set, but Baptiste had 17 winners to Osaka’s five in that timeframe, including an ace to convert a set point in the tiebreak, according to WTA.
Osaka turned the match around in the second set, in which she broke Baptiste’s serve three times. After that set, Baptiste had a medical time-out on her foot and could not find her way back into the match.
Osaka continued her dominance in the final set, with her 10th and final ace of the day lining up her first match point. Osaka closed from there to book her spot in a final four for the first time since giving birth to daughter Shai in 2023.
–IANS
bc/ab
