Naomi Osaka: Defending Australian Open champion sees off Madison Brengle to reach third round

ByEurosport

Updated 19/01/2022 at 10:28 GMT

The four-time Grand Slam champion beat the American 6-0, 6-4 to reach the third round in Melbourne. Osaka was at her brutal best in the first set but dropped her level in the second, before recovering her form to advance. A subscription for discovery+ is now £29.99 for the first year for UK users, down from £59.99.

Naomi Osaka produced some of her best tennis to continue her defence of the Australian Open with a 6-0 6-4 victory over Madison Brengle.

It took Okaka just 20 minutes to wrap up the first set, earning the first break of serve in the second game to 15. Brengle could not live with her opponent’s ferocious hitting and Osaka raced away with the rest of the set to secure the bagel.

There were hopes of a resurgence from the American early in the second set when she went 0-30 up on Osaka’s serve, but the world No. 14 recovered to take the opening game - albeit after missing what seemed like an easy volley at the net, which she laughed off.

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Brengle finally got on the board when she held serve in the eighth game of the match, to one of the loudest crowd reactions of the match. That lit a fire in the world No. 54 and she earned herself three break points in the next game, all of which were saved by Osaka.

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The four-time Grand Slam champion continued to be troubled on her serve and she again offered up and saved three break points in her next service game, before her luck finally ran out in the seventh game when Brengle took advantage of a fourth break point to go ahead.

That woke Osaka up from a below-par run of games, needing just one break point to bring herself back level in the match. Her serve recovered too, finally holding to love, and she then blitzed through Brengle's service game without dropping a point to secure victory.

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"I returned pretty well, that’s not my usual stat but I have been working on it through the off-season so I’m glad it came in handy today," said Osaka.

"I’m a bit of a perfectionist so I feel like if I compare myself to the past I’ll never be satisfied, so I’m just trying to take it one day at a time. The goal for me is just to have fun and I’m really grateful for my team because I feel like we’re accomplishing that."

Osaka will face another American in the third round when she takes on Amanda Anisimova.

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Stream the 2022 Australian Open live and on demand on discovery+. A subscription for discovery+ is now £29.99 for the first year for UK users, down from £59.99

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