Tennis at Tokyo Olympics 2020: Naomi Osaka vs Saisai Zheng Preview, Head to Head and Prediction


Tennis at Tokyo Olympics 2020: Naomi Osaka vs Saisai Zheng Preview, Head to Head and Prediction

Naomi Osaka vs Saisai Zheng

In the first round of the Women’s singles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, world number 2, Naomi Osaka will face world number 52, Saisai Zheng.

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Naomi Osaka vs Saisai Zheng: Match Details

Tournament2020 Tokyo Olympics
MatchNaomi Osaka vs Saisai Zheng
RoundFirst round
DateJuly 24, 2021
VenueTokyo, Japan
SurfaceHard Court

Naomi Osaka vs Saisai Zheng: Preview

Saisai Zheng
Saisai Zheng

World number 2, Naomi Osaka is all set to make her Olympic debut this week. She will enter the Olympics as the first Asian tennis player to reach world number 1 and the first Japanese born player to win a grand slam title. Osaka has confirmed that she will represent Japan in the Olympic games which will coincidentally held in Tokyo. She is one of the top names in the games and is one of the favourites to take the gold medal home.

This will be Osaka’s first match after almost 2 months after she withdrew from the French Open after the first round due to mental health reasons. She has win loss record of 247-135 throughout her entire career on the WTA tour and a 14-3 record this year to date.

World number 52, Saisai Zheng will represent China at the upcoming Olympic games in women’s singles and doubles events. The 27-year-old opted to withdraw from Wimbledon to return home to train for the Olympics. She will be representing her country in the games for the second time after participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics as well.

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Zheng is confident that she has a chance to win a medal in both the singles and doubles events. She believes that women’s tennis at the moment is extremely close so the Olympics this time will be very interesting. She has win loss record of 322-228 throughout her entire career on the WTA tour and a 6-12 record this year to date.

Naomi Osaka vs Saisai Zheng: Head to Head

Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka

This will be the 4th meeting between the pair who last met in the 2nd round of the 2020 Australian Open where Osaka won in straight sets. Osaka currently leads their head-to-head tie 2-1.

Naomi Osaka vs Saisai Zheng: Prediction

Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka

Zheng won a singles silver medal and doubles gold medal at the Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010 and has experience of playing at the Olympics in 2016 in Rio. She has also played many more tournaments this year compared to Osaka. However, Osaka is in great form and has been for the last couple of years.  

Osaka is considered the hard court queen as she has won all four of her grand slam titles on hard court surfaces, twice at the US Open and twice at the Australian Open including the Australian Open this year. Her win-loss record on hard court is 119-51 throughout her career and 12-1 this year.

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Prediction: Osaka to win in straight sets.

Also read: Tennis at Tokyo Olympics 2020: Women’s Singles Draw Preview, Analysis and Prediction