This won’t be the year for Naomi Osaka to replicate her past triumphs at the U.S. Open.
The two-time champion, most recently in 2020, ran into a Kazakh brick wall by the name of Elena Rybakina on Monday afternoon in the round of 16. Overwhelmed to the point that merely staying competitive proved a struggle, Osaka’s day was over in 66 minutes. Rybakina, the second seed in the tournament, dispatched her 6-1, 6-4 to move on to the quarterfinals, where China’s Qinwen Zheng awaits.
“Honestly, I’m not disappointed,” Osaka said. “It’s a very strange feeling. … Maybe I’m just getting older, but I don’t really feel sad.”
Rybakina, who has yet to drop a set in the U.S. Open, was simply imperious. She moved Osaka around at will, hit 29 winners to Osaka’s nine and faced just one break point, which she won.
The Australian Open champion earlier this year, Rybakina reached a U.S. Open quarterfinal for the first time in her career, having gotten as far as the Round of 16 just one other time. The way she’s playing, she just might have a chance for another major.
A lingering Achilles injury, for which Osaka received treatment during her third-round match, continued bothering her throughout this one, and she took some speed off her serve to compensate.
“I can’t really push off like I want,” she said. “When I land, it hurts a little. I was trying to figure out ways to minimize it. I thought if I served a little slower, the impact when I land would be less.”
Osaka said she got ultrasounds on her Achilles both Sunday and after her match Monday, and she planned to get an MRI as the issue “got a lot worse this morning.” The effect on her serve was notable throughout.
Both sets turned on a pair of double faults from Osaka, who struggled to assert herself on serve throughout. At 2-1 in the first set, Osaka double-faulted twice for Rybakina’s first break of the afternoon — and didn’t win another game for the rest of a set that took all of 22 minutes to complete.
Then at 3-3 in the second set, she missed four straight serves, giving Rybakina another window of opportunity.
That was quickly capitalized on, and before a heavily pro-Osaka crowd had truly settled in, it was match point.
Osaka was placid in defeat, saying she wasn’t sad over losing.
“I felt like I played the best I could given the situation and the crowd was really, really into it. It was fun. It was unfortunate [to lose], obviously, but life goes on.”
