MELBOURNE, Australia – Naomi Osaka remained undefeated in the Grand Slam finals with a 6-4 and 6-3 victory over Jennifer Brady at the Australian Open on Saturday.
Osaka, 23, became the first woman to win her first four Grand Slam finals since Monica Seles did so in 1990 and 1991 on her way to nine championships in total.
Osaka won the first set after Brady lost an open chance to advance and serve for the set. In the second, Osaka took control with a 4-0 lead and remained in the championship.
Osaka, who also won the 2019 Australian Open, now has a 53-week winning streak that lasted 53 weeks and includes a championship race at the United States Open, where he defeated Victoria Azarenka in three sets in the final.
Osaka’s most recent defeat to Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo in the Fed Cup qualifiers last February came before the coronavirus pandemic ended the tennis season for five months.
After the match, Osaka considered it a privilege to be able to play a major tournament due to the public health crisis. “I didn’t play my last Grand Slam with the fans, so having that energy really means a lot,” she said.
Brady, a 25-year-old American, was making her first appearance in a Grand Slam final, about five months after losing to Osaka in a hotly contested semi-final at the United States Open. A member of the 2014 UCLA national championship team, Brady became the first woman with university experience in the final of this tournament since 1983. She was trying to become the first to win the title since Barbara Jordan of Stanford did so in 1979.
Brady, who was out of the top 50 in early 2020, entered the tournament ranked 24th in the world, and after her run at Melbourne Park, she jumped to 13th.
The third-placed Osaka, representing Japan in the competition, will move to second place, behind Australian Ashleigh Barty, who fell in the quarterfinals. Osaka spent long periods of 2019 in first place.
Her path to the final in Melbourne included five opponents currently ranked in the top 50, including the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams, whom she defeated in straight sets in the semifinals. Osaka recovered from the brink of defeat in the fourth round, where he faced Garbiñe Muguruza and avoided two match points in the 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory. She lost just 11 games in her next two games on the way to the final.
Among active players, only two women have more Grand Slam titles than Osaka: Williams and his sister Venus, with seven. The Osaka championships took place on a hard field, starting with her victory at the US Open 2018, where she defeated Serena Williams in two sets in the final.
Asked before Saturday’s match to explain her perfect record in the finals, Osaka described the championship fight as “the biggest fight” and said: “I think I fight harder in the finals. I think that’s where you stand out.