Naomi Osaka Claims Her Second Australian Open Title In A Grand Style

Naomi Osaka confirmed her status as the queen of hard tennis by pushing back Jennifer Brady's challenge to win her second Australian Open.


The number three seed became the first woman since Monica Seles to win her first four Grand Slam finals as she beat 24th in the world 6: 4: 6: 3 in 77 minutes.


The 23-year-old, born in Japan and raised in America, clearly felt the pressure to be the overwhelming favorite, but swept an early shock to assert her top class with the light force of her base strokes.


She has now won four of the last six Grand Slam events staged on hard courts, even if repeating that dominance on clay and grass has proved much more elusive.


Just making the final had been a tremendous effort from Brady, who last month spent two weeks locked up in her hotel room. She was one of the 72 players in full quarantine after someone tested positive on her flight.


Windy conditions greeted the players and a restricted crowd allowed into Rod Laver Arena.


Fears that Osaka could walk away with it may have been burnished when she took an early lead, with signs that the occasion was getting to the American, who double faulted twice to get broken early on.


However she quickly recovered as nerves seemed to creep in on the other side, with the Japanese player starting to overplay and spray unforced errors around the court.


Brady was happily standing toe to toe, and had a big chance when she created two break points at 4-4.


Osaka saved one of them with a looping forehand and then benefitted when her opponent suddenly tightened up at 4-5, double faulting and then, on the first set point, dumping a straightforward forehand in the net.


That was always going to be tough for last year’s US Open semi-finalist to swallow, and the favourite relaxed into the occasion.


As she did in her semi-final win against Serena Williams, Osaka momentarily tightened up in sight of the winning post and was broken at 4-0. Normal service was resumed soon after, with Brady always having to press to the limit at the cost of unforced errors.


She made Osaka serve it out at 5-3 but that was done with a minimum of drama.

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