Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka was upset by Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-0, 6-4 on Wednesday in the quarter-finals of Miami Open, breaking the Japanese star’s 23 match win streak.
Osaka, world’s number two, a four time Grand Slam champion couldn’t make more than eight points in her first Miami crown chase, never managed a win.
However, in the second game of the second set, Osaka broke and was on top of her game when Sakkari roared again. Sakkari broke Osaka for the second time in the match after trailing 40-0 to seize a 5-4 advantage, then clearly streaked the match with a win of 69 minutes .
“She has the most wins so far this year so she’s in great from – it meant a lot to me,” Sakkari said on her victory, which prompted an eruption of screams after the final point.
“I was focused on my returns. I had to mix it up well. Overall, It was pretty clever match.”
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Sakkari, then moved forward to a semi-final match against Canadian eighth seed Biance Andreesu and Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.
“Just during my cool down I’ll enjoy it with my team, then get back to work,” Sakkari said highlighting about the next match.
Osaka, however, won only 3 of 13 second serve points in the opening set and had only 35% on point rate on first serves as Sakkari dominated early.
“I played a great first set,” Sakkari continued. “I didn’t make many unforced errors. I just came out with a good game plan.”
“I ad two break points and didn’t take them, then a bad service game, which can happen. I stayed within myself and started fighting back, hitting a few more balls and winning a few points against her,” Sakkari said on getting tight in the first two games of the second set.
