China Open: Osaka produces comeback win, book spot in third round

Naomi Osaka engineered a confident comeback to defeat No.21 seed Yulia Putintseva in the second round at the China Open on Friday. Osaka, a champion in 2019, came from a set down to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

“I heard that stat from my agent,” Osaka told reporters, “and I wanted to break it really bad because I knew that I also had a stat about three-setters before I took my break, so that was really important to me.

“I also wanted to show myself that I could win a match and fight without playing as perfect as I wanted to.”

“I just told myself to keep fighting,” Osaka said on court. “I traveled all the way here so it would be a little bit injustice to myself to not try as hard as I can. So just tried to dig deep.”

“I’m just trying to be overwhelmingly confident in my abilities,” Osaka said, “because I think I did lose that along the way this year just from losing a lot matches, which is a very human thing to do.”

“I’m trying to think this is the last push of the year and I really want to do well and in my career I’ve always done well here,” Osaka said. “Just trying to make the last push before Australia.”

The victory extends her win streak at the China Open to eight matches. It is the first time Osaka has won back-to-back matches since June at ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Osaka who with the win, made her first successful comeback in over two years, snapping a 22-match losing streak after losing the first set will face No.60 Katie Volynets next round.