MELBOURNE, Australia – So good for so long lately, Naomi Osaka was just one point from the end of her long winning streak, one point from leaving the Australian Open with a loss to Garbine Muguruza.
Desolate as things seemed to her at the end of a clash of great successes from Grand Slam champions and former No. 1, Osaka never wavered, erasing two match points and grabbing the last four games to defeat Muguruza 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 at Rod Laver Arena in Sunday’s fourth round.
Third place Osaka returns to the quarterfinals of a tournament he won in 2019 with one of his three main trophies. Osaka had its winning streak in 18 games – a streak that included the United States Open title in September – and put an end to Muguruza’s good moment.
Going to Sunday – the second day of the tournament without spectators, because of a local blockade by COVID-19 – the double champion Muguruza had been defeated only once at this Australian Open. She lost a total of 10 games in three matches.
But Osaka broke five times and won 17 games in total in a competition with a fun shuttle game and great service for both of them on a cloudy day with temperatures around 60 degrees.
“I was a little intimidated, because I knew she was playing very well in that match,” said Osaka. “In stressful spots, I feel like I had to go inside myself. And I know that today I probably made a lot of unforced mistakes, but I feel that was what I needed to do, because I really couldn’t give her short balls because she was going to finish. ”
Osaka ended up with more unforced errors, 36-28, but also more winners, 40-24.
The key moment came when Osaka served 15-40 while losing 5-3 in the final set. Muguruza failed to convert any of these match points: Osaka delivered one of his 11 aces at 118 mph in the first; Muguruza missed a ground stroke in the second.
Fifteen minutes later, the game would end.
Muguruza served for the win in the next game and was defeated when Osaka hit the cross-court victory to close a 14-time exchange. After holding onto 6-5, Osaka defeated Muguruza once again to win his first head-to-head match.
Osaka, a 23-year-old girl who was born in Japan and moved to the United States with her family when she was 3, now faces Su-Wei Hsieh, 35, from Taiwan, with a spot in the semifinals at stake.
“I’m not really looking forward to it,” said Osaka. “It will be very difficult.”
The other matches in the fourth round on this side of the women’s draw were on Sunday: Serena Williams vs Aryna Sabalenka and Simona Halep vs Iga Swiatek.
Hsieh’s 6-4 and 6-2 win in 71st place over 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova made her the oldest woman to make her quarter-final debut in the professional era.
This is Hsieh’s 38th appearance in a Grand Slam tournament.
Hsieh plays in an unusual style that includes two-handed kicks from both sides, and this may have confused the 19th-placed Vondrousova, who made 31 unforced mistakes, 13 more than the winner.
Hsieh beat US Open 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu in the second round.