Superb Naomi Osaka crushes Daria Kasatkinato in Indian Wells to win maiden WTA title
:focal(167x134:169x132)/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2021/04/12/3041129-62378324-310-310.png)
Updated 18/03/2018 at 22:38 GMT
Rising star of tennis Naomi Osaka picked up her first major title with a dominant victory over Daria Kasatkina in the final of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Sunday.
Naomi Osaka of Japan returns a sho to Simona Halep of Romania during semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on March 16, 2018 in Indian Wells, California.
Image credit: Getty Images
The 20-year-old arrived at the tournament in blistering form and went into Sunday's final as favourite following her impressive run of results.
But few expected Osaka to make such short work of Kasatkina, with the Japanese star racing to a 6-3 6-2 win.
A crunching backhand volley on match point earned Osaka her first title and crown of "the queen of the desert" in California.
The overjoyed youngster raced to embrace her family after shaking hands with the umpire, and must now be considered one to watch for the remaining three Grand Slams of the season.
"If you put in a lot of hard work you can play well," said Osaka, who was playing in only her second final after being the runner-up in Tokyo in 2016. "If you try and believe in yourself, you can win."
"She probably wasn't going to give me any balls so I just had to stay very consistent," she added.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
/images.sports.gracenote.com/images/lib/basic/geo/country/flag/large/2241.png)
/images.sports.gracenote.com/images/lib/basic/geo/country/flag/large/2204.png)