Anisimova stuns Osaka at Australian Open

Melbourne: American youngster Amanda Anisimova saved two match points to the way to a stunning three-set victory over Naomi Osaka, ending the Australian Open campaign of the defending champion from Japan in women’s singles third round on Friday. Anisimova, the 20-year-old, who had reached the fourth round in the Australian Open in 2019, upset No.13 […]

Melbourne: American youngster Amanda Anisimova saved two match points to the way to a stunning three-set victory over Naomi Osaka, ending the Australian Open campaign of the defending champion from Japan in women’s singles third round on Friday.

Anisimova, the 20-year-old, who had reached the fourth round in the Australian Open in 2019, upset No.13 seed Naomi Osaka 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) in 2-hour, 15-minute at the Margaret Court Arena.

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It was the 20-year-old American’s seventh Top 20 win of her career, and the first since she beat Alison Riske in the second round of the 2020 US Open. After reaching a career-high ranking of No.21 in October 2019, Anisimova fell to No.86 last August after two difficult seasons.

Osaka, who held two match points on Anisimova’s serve at 5-4 in the third set, saw her 15-match unbeaten streak in Melbourne come to an end. For the second time, the former World No.1’s Australian Open title defence has been halted by a young American in the third round following her 2020 loss at the same stage to Coco Gauff.
The result is the first time Anisimova has won from match point down since saving one to defeat Tereza Martincova 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 in the first round of Mallorca 2019. Osaka’s last loss from match point up was to Karolina Pliskova 6-7(10), 7-6(3), 6-2 in the 2020 Brisbane semi-finals, the report said.

In the Round of 16, Anisimova will meet top seed and local favourite Ashleigh Barty, who advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Italy’s Camila Giorgi.

Meanwhile, Barty continued her first-week domination against the big-hitting Giorgi, going unbroken for her sixth consecutive match. Barty has not seen her vaunted serve broken since her first match of the season against Coco Gauff at the Adelaide International, which she went on to win for her third title on home soil. The World No.1 has reeled off 57 consecutive holds of serve.

Top-10 seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Maria Sakkari of Greece advanced to the fourth round in contrasting styles, defeating Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova, respectively.

Trailing by a set and a break, Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open singles and doubles champion, showed her mettle with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 comeback win against Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, in the third round.

Krejcikova will next face another former major-winner in No.24 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who dropped just two games in her third-round win over No.15 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-0, 6-2.

Sakkari was back in the last-16 of the Australian Open after two years with the world No. 8 winning 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-1 third-round victory over No.28 seed Kudermetova, booking her spot in the second week without the loss of a set.

Sakkari will next face American Jessica Pegula, the No.21 seed and 2021 quarterfinalist, who defeated Spain’s Nuria Parrizas-Diaz, 7-6(3), 6-2.

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