Qatar Open: Naomi Osaka beats Caroline Garcia in first spherical to avenge Australian Open defeat | Tennis Information

Former world No 1 Naomi Osaka avenged her first-round defeat to Caroline Garcia on the Australian Open by beating the French world No 21 in straight units within the opening spherical of the Qatar Open. 

Osaka, who returned to motion in Melbourne simply six months after giving delivery, snapped a three-game shedding streak to triumph 7-5 6-4. She’s going to play Croatia’s Petra Martic within the subsequent spherical.

Garcia defeated Osaka 6-4 7-6 (7-2) on the Australian Open lower than a month in the past and seemed poised for an additional spectacular victory when she broke serve within the fifth sport within the first set.

Osaka trailed Garcia 5-3 earlier than turning the tables on the previous world No 4, saving seven of eight break factors. The four-time Grand Slam winner caught hearth from there, reeling off 5 straight video games to take the opening set.

Osaka earned another break of serve within the match, in what proved to be the ultimate sport, to shut out the win.

Up subsequent, she faces one other highly effective server in Martic, who survived a third-set tie-breaker to defeat Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 7-5 3-6 7-6 (7-5). Osaka gained her solely earlier encounter with Martic, 10 years in the past.

“It was actually powerful at this time, however I additionally felt actually impressed as a result of I have never been right here shortly, and simply to see everybody out right here,” Osaka mentioned on courtroom after her win. “I noticed quite a lot of Haitian and Japanese flags. It means so much to me and it is very nice to play in entrance of everybody.”

‘I struggled with every little thing!’ – Raducanu knocked out of Qatar Open

Emma Raducanu paid the worth for a sluggish begin as she suffered a disappointing 6-0 7-6 defeat to Anhelina Kalinina within the first spherical of the Qatar Open.

The Brit was utterly out of types in a primary set that lasted simply 22 minutes, however drastically improved her degree in a much more aggressive second.

Raducanu confirmed nice spirit to avoid wasting two match factors with Kalinina serving to seal the competition at 6-5, however would then miss a set level likelihood of her personal within the tie-break earlier than in the end shedding it 8-6.

It is the primary time within the 4 tournaments that Raducanu has performed since making her comeback in January after eight months out injured that the 21-year-old has made an opening-round exit.

“I feel I used to be scuffling with every little thing, serve, return, forehand, backhand,” Raducanu informed Sky Sports activities.

“To be sincere I felt like I by no means actually bought into it. I feel it was a mixture of issues. It is like my first day match I feel I’ve performed in a yr, in order that’s completely different.

“Actually, I feel I have to observe coaching exterior a bit extra as a result of it is very completely different and in addition the sunshine, circumstances, shadows – it is actually laborious to sort of see the ball, I discovered in the direction of the tip.

“When the tennis is not there, it’s a must to not less than attempt to battle and I feel I did that within the second set.”

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