Naomi Osaka staged an extraordinary comeback at the Canadian Open, saving two match points to defeat No. 13 seed Liudmila Samsonova 4-6 7-6(6) 6-3.
This marked Osaka’s first match with new coach Tomasz Wiktorowski in her corner. The Japanese star recently parted ways with Patrick Mouratoglou and enlisted the help of Iga Swiatek’s former coach, Wiktorowski, who flew to Montreal for a trial run.
The duo is already off to a promising start. Osaka had already secured a victory over Ariana Arseneault before Wiktorowski joined her in Canada.
The pair have been seen on the practice court together, and the Polish coach was present in Osaka’s box as she clinched her most significant win in nearly a year.
The four-time Major winner initially struggled, losing her serve in the opening game. Samsonova claimed the first set in just 40 minutes and continued to apply pressure on Osaka’s serve until she broke again.
Samsonova then served for the match at 5-4 and led 40-15. However, Osaka rallied, playing more freely and breaking back to stay in the match.
Despite trailing 5-2 in the tiebreak, Osaka fought back, winning six of the next seven points to take the set and force a decider.
The current world No. 49 seized control by breaking in the opening game and surged ahead to establish a commanding 4-1 advantage. Samsonova required a medical timeout to address a troublesome foot injury but managed to claw back one of the breaks.
However, while attempting to stay alive in the match at 3-5 down, Samsonova was broken once more as a thrilled Osaka secured her second top-20 victory of the season – her most significant triumph since shocking Jelena Ostapenko at last year’s French Open.
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Wiktorowski jumped skyward and thrust his fist in celebration as Osaka savored her remarkable turnaround. The four-time Grand Slam winner then admitted to the audience that she had struggled in the early stages.
“She definitely came out really hard and I think for me I was definitely overwhelmed and I didn’t know if I should also be hitting winners but after a while I just tried to keep the ball on the court,” Osaka said of Samsonova.
“I mean, I’ve played her like so many times since I’ve come back so I wouldn’t say that it’s new, but I haven’t played here in a long time, so it’s nice to get a three-set match in Montreal.”
Osaka, who fell to Emma Raducanu in the second round of last week’s WTA 500 in Washington, will now battle either Ostapenko or Renata Zarazua for a place in the last 16.
AloJapan.com