Naomi Osaka makes history by securing a place in her first grass final in Bad Homburg
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka secured her unprecedented participation in a grass-court tournament final this Friday. The feat occurred in Bad Homburg, Germany, after the Japanese tennis player overcame the Chinese Wang Xinyu.
Naomi Osaka, an athlete from Japan, advanced to the decisive stage of the tennis championship played on a grass court in Bad Homburg.
Osaka, the tournament’s sixth seed, won the match 6-3 under extremely hot weather conditions, with thermometers registering 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), in an important preparatory event for Wimbledon.
After the victory, Osaka expressed her happiness at having reached her first final on this type of surface, but made a point of highlighting that her main objective is still the title.
“I’m very happy, but there’s still one match left and we’re going to focus on that,” said Osaka.
The tennis player also shared that her daughter, who will turn three next week during Wimbledon, was already waiting for her in London, although she is not yet fully aware of her mother’s true profession or prestige in tennis.
“I don’t know if she understands that I’m successful; I think she just knows that I play tennis,” commented the 28-year-old athlete.
“Sometimes when we’re at home and I pick up my tennis racket, she’ll ask, ‘Oh, are you going to play tennis?'”
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“I don’t know if she really likes it, but I think she knows what I do, even though she probably doesn’t know how good I am at it,” Osaka added.
During the first set, Osaka demonstrated superiority by firing six aces and achieving a break of service over her opponent, winning with remarkable ease.
At the beginning of the second set, Xinyu reacted to Osaka’s break of serve with a break of her own, but the Japanese tennis player quickly regained control of the match.
Osaka broke Xinyu’s serve again and finished the game in one hour and ten minutes, maintaining her excellent performance on grass just a few days before the start of Wimbledon, where she is ranked 14th seed.
Holder of two Grand Slam titles on hard courts, at the Australian Open and US Open, Osaka has traditionally faced challenges on grass, having never advanced beyond the third round at Wimbledon, making her arrival in this final a significant milestone in her career on this surface.
The 28-year-old athlete will compete in the final against the winner of Friday’s other semifinal, which will be decided between Elena-Gabriela Ruse and fourth seed, Karolina Muchova.
