True glimpses of Naomi Osaka. The Japanese is returning to the player we remembered, with aggressive, tenacious tennis. The WTA Tour is thus (finally) finding one of its great superstars again. The world number 8 Qinwen Zheng, with the WTA seasonal record of 23 aces, eliminated the Japanese in three sets in the first round of the WTA 500 tournament in Berlin, with the final score of 6-4 3-6 6-3 (The Zheng’s performance surpasses Karolina Pliskova’s record of 19 aces against Anna Kalinskaya in Doha – ed.).
This is Zheng’s second victory of the season against Osaka, after her success in Rome, but Naomi’s performance still remains very solid. Not only; considering the epic match played by the Japanese in Paris against Iga Swiatek, we can see how the former WTA No.1 is gradually returning to her level. A warning for the opponents, who, starting from the hard-court season in North America, will have an additional great opponent to compete with.
In an interview with Tennis Channel, the American legend Andy Roddick was impressed by Osaka’s improvements, even on playing surfaces that were not at all congenial to her.
“I think Naomi is making this progress on surfaces that she doesn’t really like, that…
