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Tokyo (AFP)
Japanese star Naomi Osaka raced into the third spherical of the Tokyo Olympics tennis event on Monday as world primary Novak Djokovic continued his pursuit of a Golden Grand Slam.
4-time Grand Slam champion Osaka powered previous Switzerland’s Forty ninth-ranked Viktorija Golubic 6-3, 6-2 in simply over an hour, enjoying her second match in as many days after lighting the Olympic cauldron on Friday.
“Actually, I really feel like I used to be a bit extra nervous earlier than the match,” stated Osaka.
“I felt plenty of butterflies, however I believe as I began enjoying and feeling extra comfy, I knew that it doesn’t matter what it will be an excellent match.”
Osaka gained seven video games in a row from 3-3 within the first set to grab management of the match at Ariake Tennis Park, the place mild breeze and barely overcast skies made for extra nice circumstances after sizzling sunshine introduced the intense climate coverage into play in spherical one.
She is the highest-ranked participant left within the girls’s draw following the shock exit of world primary and Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty.
“It undoubtedly would imply so much for me to win gold right here, however I do know it is a course of,” stated Osaka, who performs 2019 French Open runner-up Marketa Vondrousova or Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu for a spot within the quarter-finals.
“I do know that these are the most effective gamers on the earth, and I actually have not performed shortly so I am making an attempt to take it one match at a time. However all in all I am simply actually completely happy to be right here.”
Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo backed up her defeat of Barty with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over France’s Fiona Ferro.
French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova beat Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 6-4, whereas two-time Grand Slam winner Garbine Muguruza swatted China’s Wang Qiang apart for the lack of simply three video games.
– ‘Greatest birthday current’ –
Maria Sakkari, who will crew up with Stefanos Tsitsipas for Greece in combined doubles, defeated Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic 6-1, 6-2 the day after celebrating her twenty sixth birthday.
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“It is likely one of the greatest presents I’ve given myself in 26 years that I am alive. To spend my birthday right here, I do not know if it is going to occur once more in my life,” stated Sakkari.
Afterward Monday, Djokovic takes on Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany for a spot within the final 16.
The Serb is the overwhelming favorite for the lads’s title in an occasion lacking half the lads’s prime 10, together with 2008 Olympic champion Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Djokovic, a 2008 bronze medallist, is hoping to emulate Steffi Graf’s 1988 feat of successful the calendar Golden Slam after already snapping up the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this 12 months.
Alexander Zverev is a possible quarter-final opponent for Djokovic. The German strolled previous Colombia’s Daniel Elahi Galan 6-2, 6-2 in his second-round match.
Second seed Daniil Medvedev meets Sumit Nagal, the primary Indian man to win an Olympic singles match since Leander Paes claimed bronze on the 1996 Video games in Atlanta.
Aryna Sabalenka, the ladies’s third seed from Belarus, faces Donna Vekic within the second spherical, with 2020 Roland Garros winner Iga Swiatek, Elina Svitolina, Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova additionally in motion.
© 2021 AFP
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