London: The sleeping giant of women’s tennis has woken from her multi-year slumber with a brilliant performance on the sport’s grandest stage.
Naomi Osaka had already banished her grass-court demons before Sunday’s centre-court date with world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, but now looks the Wimbledon title favourite after a 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) triumph propelled her into the quarter-finals.
This was Sabalenka’s first straight-sets loss at any major since the 2020 US Open, and she remains without a Wimbledon title on her resume.
The top three women’s seeds, including defending champion Iga Swiatek and 2022 winner Elena Rybakina, plus last year’s runner-up, Amanda Anisimova, are now out of the tournament.
“She overpowered me. I felt like it was [an] incredible level from her. I tried my best,” Sabalenka said, after she called a hasty media conference.
“Just know that I can handle myself much better than last year [when she was criticised for her post-match reaction at Roland-Garros]. If you were expecting something really fun – it’s not going to happen. Probably just going to be short answers. I f—ed it up this year. Next year, I’ll try to do better.”
Like Sabalenka now, Osaka, 28 and mother to three-year-old Shai, was once the tour’s dominant force, including spending 25 weeks at the top of the rankings before Australian great Ash Barty took over the reins.
The Japanese megastar won all four of her grand slam titles in an eight-tournament stretch capped by a second Australian Open in 2021 – but they were all on hardcourts, and even at her peak, she failed to fire at the All England club.
She infamously lost in the first round in 2019 as the world No.2.
Osaka’s fans jokingly started referring to her as “Grass-saka” during her run to the Bad Homburg final in the days leading up to this year’s Wimbledon championships, a nickname that has proven prophetic.
Osaka continues to give the credit for her grass-court renaissance to her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, who she started working with mid-last year after parting ways with Patrick Mouratoglou. Wiktorowski previously guided the careers of Polish champions Iga Swiatek and Agnieszka Radwanska.
“The big Polish man,” Osaka said on court, after being asked how she had turned her grass-court fortunes around.
“Shout out to Tomasz, shout out to my team … my team is the best team ever. I have so much fun with them, and I’m so grateful they’re on this journey with me.”
Straight-sets victories over Elsa Jacquemot, Anastasia Gasanova and Australia’s Daria Kasatkina were ominous, but the Sabalenka showdown was the ultimate test.
The top-seeded Belarusian powerhouse might not be the “final boss” at this Wimbledon, in video game terms, but she might as well have been. It did not take for Osaka to make her move.
After earning a break point in the third game, Osaka immediately put Sabalenka on the back foot – an unfamiliar feeling that the world No.1 became accustomed to in this contest – then after wrong-footing her with one backhand, she drilled another halfway up the sideline for a winner.
Osaka staved off two break-back points in the next game, then broke Sabalenka again.
The first set was over in a flash, prompting Sabalenka to take an off-court break, but the second set was a far tighter affair, particularly once the top seed survived a lengthy fifth game on serve.
Twice Osaka had chances to blow the set wide open, but twice Sabalenka came up big: she rifled a 185km/h serve through her rival’s defences on the first, then stepped into the court and clubbed a crosscourt backhand winner on the next.
It was a champion’s response. But still, Sabalenka could not make inroads on Osaka’s serve as the set went to a tiebreak.
Sabalenka is the tour’s tiebreak queen, and had not lost one at Wimbledon since her debut at the tournament in 2017, but this was not her day.
The four-time grand slam winner leaked error after error – some of them elementary mistakes – and Osaka was soon celebrating, passing further credit for her form to her mother Tamaki’s Japanese cooking.
“I feel like her cooking is powering me, so mum, I’d really appreciate another meal tonight,” Osaka said.
Osaka’s quarter-final is a rematch of the Bad Homburg final against Karolina Muchova, who ousted 2024 winner Barbora Krejcikova, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. Osaka was already a set down when she retired from that final with a foot injury that has not hampered her in the Wimbledon fortnight.
Fourth seed Jessica Pegula – the highest-ranked woman left in the draw – also advanced in her all-American battle with teenager Iva Jovic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic had to rally from behind in the first set and dropped another third set, but recovered to end qualifier Roman Safiullin’s run in a 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 result.
In doing so, Djokovic broke a tie with Roger Federer for the most match wins at Wimbledon, but the 39-year-old was not in the mood for reminiscing.
“To be honest, I haven’t felt really great on the court, so I was just relieved to get out of it and get a win,” Djokovic said. “Satisfaction and enjoyment was not part of today’s win, to be honest. Of course, I’m relieved and happy to win it, but I haven’t enjoyed.”
The seven-time Wimbledon titlist’s quarter-final opponent is No.3 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who needed five sets and almost four-and-a-half hours to quell Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
The day’s other men’s victor was German Jan-Lennard Struff, who advanced when star Pole Hubert Hurkacz retired while trailing 4-2 in the deciding set after winning the opening two sets.
Marc McGowan travelled to London with Tennis Australia’s support.
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