She was saved by her fighting spirit, securing her seventh consecutive clay-court victory following her title at the WTA 125 event in Saint-Malo last Sunday. She’ll play Beatriz Haddad Maia or Marie Bouzkova in the third round.
That's some comeback 😲@naomiosaka | #IBI25 pic.twitter.com/mdfji1bhdR
— wta (@WTA) May 8, 2025
It was her seventh match in 10 days and a sense of fatigue may also have caught up with the former world No 1 under the Italian sun. Twenty four hours earlier, Osaka had comfortably defeated Italian wildcard Sara Errani (6-2, 6-3) on Campo Centrale.
Golubic, one of the few players on the WTA Tour who plays with a one-handed backhand, served for the match at 6-2, 5-4 but Osaka erased that opportunity with a commanding break to love, by far her best of the match up to that point.
From then on, it was a one-sided encounter, with Osaka, fist clenched, hungry for victories as she has been since her final in Auckland earlier this year, and Golubic becoming less aggressive and visibly affected by her missed opportunities. The Swiss managed to win only 14 points during the last 10 games of the match.
Osaka’s first serve was the key
This second-round match once again highlighted the fine line in the risk-taking game of the highly sensitive Osaka between off days, like her first-round defeat in Madrid against Lucia Bronzetti, and the full expression of her striking power, capable of producing exceptional tennis even on clay, as she did in the third set.
The match also underscored the importance of her first serve in her overall effectiveness. As long as her first serve percentage was below 50%, the Japanese player was trailing (43 percent in the first set, which she lost 6-2, despite winning 80 percent of the points on her first serve). Her comeback coincided with the resurgence of her first serve, reaching 72 percent in the third set, during which she won 77 percent of the points behind it.
Osaka will play the winner of the match between Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, the No 18 seed, and Marie Bouzkova in the next round.
Roma WTA 1000, other second-round results (Foro Italico, clay, EUR 6.009.593, most recent results first):
Emiliana Arango vs. Mirra Andreeva
Linda Noskova vs. Sonay Kartal
Katie Volynets vs. Clara Tauson
Emma Navarro vs. Kamilla Rakhimova
Veronika Kudermetova vs. Amanda Anisimova
Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Emma Raducanu
Maria Sakkari vs. Magda Linette
Coco Gauff vs. Victoria Mboko
Olga Danilovic vs. Qinwen Zheng
Magdalena Frech vs. Victoria Azarenka
Bianca Andreescu vs. Donna Vekic
Elena Rybakina vs. Eva Lys
Marta Kostyuk vs. Daria Kasatkina
Leylah Fernandez vs. Antonia Ruzic
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Sofia Kenin
Aryna Sabalenka vs. Anastasia Potapova
Lucia Bronzetti vs. Karolina Muchova
Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Marie Bouzkova
Madison Keys vs. Varvara Gracheva
Ashlyn Krueger vs. Jessica Pegula
Elina Svitolina vs. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro
Jasmine Paolini vs. Lulu Sun
Danielle Collins vs. Elena-Gabriela Ruse
Hailey Baptiste vs. Liudmila Samsonova
Elisabetta Cocciaretto vs. Iga Swiatek
Peyton Stearns vs. Anna Kalinskaya
Elise Mertens vs. Suzan Lamens
Jelena Ostapenko vs. Rebecca Sramkova: thursday
Diana Shnaider vs. Caroline Dolehide: thursday
Jaqueline Cristian vs. Yulia Putintseva: thursday
Petra Kvitova vs. Ons Jabeur
AloJapan.com