Naomi Osaka’s title defense Down Under is over. The reigning Australian Open champion and No. 13 seed lost her third round match against unseeded Amanda Anisimova, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, on Friday morning at Melbourne Park. Anisimova was ranked 60th in the world entering the Australian Open.
It marks the second consecutive upset win for Anisimova, who defeated No. 22 Belina Bencic in straight sets in the second round. She had 46 winning points compared to just 21 from Osaka. In addition, she had eight return winners throughout the match on Friday.
“I knew I had to be playing sharp if I wanted to give myself a chance,” Anisimova said following her upset victory.
Osaka had plenty of chances to take down Anisimova, but just couldn’t cash in. She had two opportunities to secure match points in the third set and failed to do so.
After defeating Osaka, Anisimova will now move on to face the No. 1 seed in Ashleigh Barty, who defeated Camila Giorgi in order to reach the quarterfinals.
Despite the loss, Osaka was in good spirits after the match and pleased with her performance. This was just the second competitive tennis tournament she has competed in since she took a break to focus on her mental health following last year’s U.S. Open.
“Definitely I think I fought for every point and I can’t be sad about that,” Osaka said. “I’m not God. I can’t win every match. So I just have to, like, take that into account and know that it would be nice to win the tournament, but that’s, like, really special.”
The two-time Australian Open champion added that she does plan on playing the full 2022 Grand Slam schedule. Next up for her is the French Open, which takes place in May.
