Naomi Osaka falls to Marketa Vondrousova in third-round stunner at Olympics
The four-time Grand Slam champion’s first Olympics ended at the hands of the 2019 Roland Garros runner-up.
Naomi Osaka became the latest casualty in an upset-ridden few days at the Tokyo Olympics, falling to Marketa Vondrousova in a third-round stunner on Tuesday, 6-1, 6-4.
The Top 3 players on the WTA rankings were all in the singles draw in Tokyo and they’ve now been taken out one day after another: No. 1 Ashleigh Barty fell to Sara Sorribes Tormo in the first round on Sunday; No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka fell to Donna Vekic in a second-round match on Monday; and now No. 2 Osaka is out in the third round to Vondrousova.
With No. 4 Sofia Kenin and No. 5 Bianca Andreescu not playing, No. 6-ranked Elina Svitolina is now the highest-ranked player left in the draw in the Japanese capital. The Ukrainian outlasted Greece's Maria Sakkari in her third-round match, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
After Vondrousova raced out to a 4-0, double-break lead and eventually pocketed the first set in 24 minutes, the No. 2-ranked Osaka looked like she was starting to build a comeback, breaking in the first game of the second set and then holding for 2-0. But Vondrousova got the break back for 2-all and eventually broke one last time in the last game of the match—Osaka clawed her way out of double match point serving at 4-5, 15-40 and had two chances to hold for 5-all, but Vondrousova closed it out.
The Czech finished the day with just 10 unforced errors, Osaka 32.
Before today, Vondrousova was best known for having reached her first Grand Slam final on the clay of Roland Garros in 2019, where she finished runner-up to Barty.
The Czech’s win over Osaka is tied for the best win of her career—she defeated Simona Halep twice when she was ranked No. 2 in 2019, at Indian Wells and Rome.
“I think this is one of the biggest [wins of my career], for sure,” Vondrousova told ITFTennis.com after the match. “I beat Simona twice, but I think Naomi, she is the greatest now, the greatest in the game, and she’s also the face of the Olympics.
“It was tough for her, I think, to play like this. But I’m too happy now.”
Osaka spoke to the press about the pressure of playing her first Olympics at home.
“For me, I feel l should be used to it by now, but at the same time, I think the scale of everything is a bit higher because of the break that I took. I’m glad I didn’t lose in the first round, at least,” the four-time Grand Slam champion said. “I’m really glad to be here. I’m sad that I lost, of course, but all in all really happy with my first Olympic experience.”
“It’s so much pressure, I cannot imagine,” Vondrousova said of Osaka's situation. “I know how it is to be under pressure. It’s tough. But I think she didn’t play a bad match—she was fighting all match, staying calm, and she was fighting until the very end.”