Japan’s Naomi Osaka on Tuesday defeated Shelby Rogers in the quarterfinals of the women’s singles competition of the ongoing US Open at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
Osaka ousted Rogers 6-3, 6-4 in straight sets in an encounter which lasted 79 minutes to make it to the second US Open semi-final of her career.
“I’m aware that the opponents that I play from now on are going to be very tough,” 4th-seeded Osaka said, in her post-match press conference as per the WTA website. “For me, I think the last two Grand Slams, everything happened so fast, I wasn’t really in the moment. I’m just really happy to be in the semis, and hopefully I can keep going.”
Osaka fired 24 winners, including seven aces, and made only eight unforced errors. The Japanese player, who won the first of her two consecutive Grand Slam titles in New York two years ago, was nearly peerless off of her first serve, winning 83 per cent of points when she got that shot into play.
Osaka, the 2018 US Open champion, fired 24 winners which included seven aces. The 22-year-old committed only eight unforced errors and won 83 per cent of her first serve as she thrashed her American counterpart.
“The big thing for me was to be the aggressor and to be okay with making unforced errors,” said Osaka. “Apparently I didn’t make that many. But, yeah, just to accept the unforced errors because I know that I’m going for shots.”
The 22-year-old two-time Grand Slam winner will now face No.28 seed Jennifer Brady in the final four. Brady had dispatched No.23 seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan earlier on Tuesday to reach her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal.
Meanwhile, in the men’s singles competition, second seed Dominic Thiem and third seed Daniil Medvedev won their respective Round of 16 matches.
While Thiem, 27, won 7-6, 6-1 6-1 against Felix Auger Aliassime, last year’s US Open finalist Medvedev advanced to the quarters after beating Francis Tiafoe 6-4, 6-1, 6-0.