Naomi Osaka reached the Australian Open semifinal as she powered past Czech Elina Svitolina on Wednesday. The Japanese fourth seed beat an injured Svitolina 6-4, 6-1 to set up a semifinal clash with Karolina Pliskova.
The 2018 US Open champion became the first Japanese woman to reach the semifinals at Melbourne Park after Kimiko Date in 1994.
The 21-year-old said that playing against an injured Svitolina was “really tough”. Svitolina received treatment for a neck and shoulder injury in the second set.
Both Osaka and Svitolina fired down aces to hold their opening service games then went on to exchange two breaks mid-way in the opening set. Despite dominating the match, Osaka made 19 unforced errors to Svitolina's seven in the first set.
In the second set, Osaka dominated to lead 3-0 when Svitolina received treatment for her injury. The Czech struggled in the set as Osaka eventually extended her lead and wrapped up the match.
Osaka said she was really happy with the way she played after admitting to not doing so well in the last two rounds.
“I just had one goal, to try as hard as I can ad not get angry,” Osaka said.
Serena Williams, in the meantime, found herself being sensationally ousted from the Australian Open after she went down to Karolina Pliskova.
Pliskova beat Serena 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to enter the semifinals, ending the 23-time grand slam champion's dream of equalling Margaret Court's record of 24 grand slam titles.
Serena, who had powered through the early stages of the tournament struggled against Pliskova as she lost the first set. She fought back in the second set and gave herself a shot at taking the match to a third set. She went on to dominate the final set as well as she led 5-0 at one point, but collapsed to an unexpected defeat owing to a slew of uncharacteristic errors.
“I was almost in the locker room, now I'm standing here as the winner. It's a great feeling,” Pliskova said after the match.
Pliskova said the win over Williams was a huge confidence booster before facing US Open champion Osaka.
With inputs from agencies
