Naomi Osaka achieves longest win streak of this season with 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Katie Volynets

World No. 73 Naomi Osaka defeated World No. 60 Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 on Monday. It was the former World No. 1’s third consecutive match win, yielding her longest run of consecutive wins since returning from maternity leave earlier this season.

The match seemed to reflect the dreary weather with a sleepy atmosphere. The gameplay felt inevitable, lacking the activity and suspense of other matches around the tournament.

The first set went by relatively quickly, with one hard hit from Osaka often winning the point. Osaka opened with a three-game winning streak until Volynets claimed the fourth game. However, most of the American’s points were due to Osaka’s errors. The two then traded games back and forth. Despite being down, Volynets stuck with it, pumping her fist with each point won and keeping up with Osaka in two of the three deuce points. Still, Osaka clutched the set 6-3 by delivering two aces and holding Volynets at love in the ninth game.

Volynets claimed the first game of the second set after another drawn-out deuce point. Yet, Osaka was at the ready, following with a five game win run. Volynets was able to claim the seventh game, winning on a deuce again and bringing the set to 5-2. Volynets’ two instances of holding serve were overshadowed by Osaka’s dominance in holding serve, which included five aces and several service winners. Despite a double fault on the first serve of game eight, Osaka rallied to win the rest of the points and secure the match.

Although the set count repeated her first-round match against Lucia Bronzetti, Osaka looked like a completely different player. In the earlier match Osaka was forced to play more defensive; whereas this time she seemed fully in control.

Osaka will advance to face No. 4 seed Coco Gauff in the fourth round. She has not made it this close to the finals in any of her last five tournament appearances. Osaka and Gauff have a 2-2 record against each other, most recently meeting in 2022 in San Jose, with Gauff winning.

— Reporting by CJ Christy