Naomi Osaka “a Little Mad” after Losing to Aryna Sabalenka at the Madrid Open

Naomi Osaka was on the brink of causing a major upset at the Madrid Open after winning the opening set against Aryna Sabalenka. But she fell apart after the third game of the second set, which led to Sabalenka coming from behind to beat the Japanese star in the fourth round of the WTA 1000 tournament.

At this same tournament last year, Osaka suffered an opening-round loss against Lucia Bronzetti. But this year, she was impressive, starting from the second round against Camila Osorio and then in the third round, where she crushed Ukrainian star Anhelina Kalinina 6-1, 6-3 at the Madrid Open.

She faced Sabalenka on Monday (April 28) and dominated the first-set tiebreak. Osaka continued with the momentum in the second set and, for the first time in the match, broke the World No.1 to lead 2-1. But the Belarusian star stepped up the gear immediately with a 40-0 break to level the set 2-2.

After that, Osaka was nowhere near her level. She looked a little bit exhausted, which fires up Sabalenka to break the former US Open champion and go up 5-3. Sabalenka, who had defeated Osaka at Indian Wells, served out to secure the second set and take the contest to a decider. Sabalenka won the match 6(1)-7, 6-3, 6-2 after two hours and 20 minutes.

Sabalenka was elated after the win, while Osaka left the court in a hurry, disappointed about her second-set collapse. During her post-match press conference at the Madrid Open, Osaka admitted that her performances at the event were good but stressed that she hates losing a match on the court:

So it doesn’t really matter because, at the end of the day, I didn’t win this match, and this is the opponent that I was given today. Honestly, like, if I take the tournament as a whole, since I didn’t play since Miami, I would say that I’m pleased. But I hate losing, so I’m a little mad right now. But, yeah, I mean, I think my last match I played against Gibson, it wasn’t that great. This one was a little bit better. Hopefully I can just keep going a little bit further day by day.

Sabalenka will play Hailey Baptiste in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open. Baptiste came from a set down to beat Belinda Bencic after crushing her racket on the court. The American star has met Sabalenka just once on tour, and that came at the Miami Open in March, which the Belarusian star won 6-4, 6-4.

Naomi Osaka takes the positives from the Madrid Open exit

Naomi Osaka holds a 55 percent winning rate on clay, which is her lowest on all three surfaces on tour. In fact, she has never won a WTA tour-level title on the surface. She has not hidden her struggles on clay and has often admitted that she aims to learn more about the best tactics and techniques to deploy on the red dirt.

At the Madrid Open, she didn’t drop a set until the fourth round against Aryna Sabalenka. Also, the tournament was her first clay-court event of the season, which has given her confidence heading into the Italian Open. Osaka revealed during the aforementioned press conference that she will take the positives from her loss to Sabalenka:

I think just knowing how close it was. I feel like every game was super close. I think I realize, like, I could potentially match her in power. I feel like in Indian Wells I was a little overwhelmed. Here I did a little bit better. Obviously she’s the No. 1 player in the world, so it was a really cool match for me to know that I’m like kind of there.

The World No.15 will hope to continue with her impressive form at the Italian Open. She reached the round of 16 of the tournament last year before losing to Peyton Stearns. Osaka has the opportunity to do better than her run last year.

Also Read: Elena Rybakina Vents Her Frustration At Line-Calling System Despite Win at the Madrid Open

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