Australian Open Live Updates: Naomi Osaka Up a Set vs. Serena Williams
A quick note on the crowd: It’s been pretty even so far, but now they really want a third set and it’s getting loud for Serena.
That said, it’s not at 50 percent capacity, even though Tennis Australia was cleared to sell that many tickets. Hard to say whether it is sparse because it is a school day, or perhaps the recent small Covid-19 outbreak and snap lockdown that lifted at midnight scared people away.
Osaka kept her nose in front as she races toward the finish line, holding easily for 4-2 with four unreturnable serves in a row to close the game.
Williams responded with a comfortable service hold of her own to reduce the margin to 4-3, but she is running out of time to get the break she needs of Osaka’s serve before the 2019 Australian Open champion has this match wrapped up.
Both players are playing better, statistically, so far in this second set, with Williams hitting eight winners against just six unforced errors, and Osaka hitting seven winners and seven unforced errors.
Midway through the second set there are two numbers that you absolutely hate if you are Williams.
The first is her ratio of unforced errors to winners. Forced and unforced is a little subjective, especially because tennis is pretty hard when Naomi Osaka is hitting balls at you, but Serena has 21 unforced errors and just 10 winners, and 13 of those are on her forehand.
The other big problem is Osaka is somehow winning 54 percent of the points on her second serve. She hits her second serve about 78 miles per hour, but Williams isn’t taking advantage
After Osaka emphatically held to extend her second set lead to 3-1, the crowd inside Rod Laver Arena — back in person after being kept out for five days because of a lockdown to stem a coronavirus cluster in Melbourne — grew louder in trying to will Williams back into the match.
Williams badly missed a forehand in the first point of the fifth game, but after a round of encouraging cheers she landed a forehand winner in the next point and screamed in relief.
Williams held to keep herself within reach of Osaka in the second set, with Osaka up 3-2.
Williams upped the volume on her intensity as the second set began, grunting loudly and exhorting herself between points as she tried to awaken her best game and remind Osaka of her presence.
Osaka drowned out the noise, however, breaking to open the second set with a one-two punch of backhands including a clean crosscourt winner to end the game.
Osaka, now 3 for 3 on break points, consolidated the break with a hold for 2-0, ending it on a pair of aces at 120 miles per hour.
Williams responded with her own emphatic serving, reaching as high as 122 miles per hour as she held for 1-2 in the second set.
Williams will need to find inroads once more into Osaka’s service games, however, if she is to make this match competitive again.
For years, we’ve been used to watching Williams and knowing that if she played well, with the exception of a few opponents, she would not lose. Her very good was just that much better than almost anyone else’s, and her best was unbeatable.
What we are seeing now is that against a good number of players, probably a dozen or so, with Osaka at the top of the list, Serena probably does not win merely on her own game. She needs her opponent to play at least a level down, and Osaka to play maybe two levels down, and right now Osaka isn’t doing that at all.
Serena isn’t playing all that badly here, and Osaka has not been perfect. But Osaka does almost everything better than Williams does, except for that serve of course, and unless she starts falling off, it’s hard to see Williams finding a way to win this.
Williams stopped Osaka’s run of five unanswered games by doing what she does…
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