However, Andreescu simply hasn’t been around long enough to support the claim as she has suffered through injury during her breakout 2019 campaign, as well as since as she has missed 15+ months of action. Other major winners like Ash Barty, Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka may be able to challenge Osaka, but her biggest threat should come from Canadian Bianca Andreescu, who proved to be a big-match player after her 3 big titles in 2019 (Indian Wells, Canada & US Open – getting through Serena herself in the finals). Simona Halep is now a veteran of 5 major finals but has only taken 2 titles home with her and has a lot of scar tissue with extremely tough defeats late in majors. Iga Swiatek burst onto the scene at last year’s October French Open but hasn’t made it past the 4th round of any of her other 11 majors. Now this doesn’t mean that other players don’t have a claim to challenge Osaka. She rarely gets rattled (despite the “outburst” versus Muguruza), and never seems to be out of a match when the stakes are highest. Her serve is starting to take on Serena-like power and precision. At 5’11” she has the physical stature to bang away with the biggest hitters on tour, but also the ability to grind out points versus more crafty opponents. The ability to stay in a point defensively and somehow turn it into offense. She seems to be able to come up with “it” when it matters most in the clutch. It already feels as though Osaka is unbeatable when it gets to the 2nd week of a slam. If Osaka can keep it up and win a few more majors quickly, it will start to eat into the rest of the players on tour. This is now the 2nd time that Osaka has followed up a US Open title with a title down under. In the end, it amounted to a total point score of 69-54 for a clean decision and her 2nd Australian Open title. Although she only hit one more winner than Brady, she was much cleaner with seven less errors than her opponent. Neither served particularly well (48% 1st serves for both), but Osaka backed up both her 1st serve (73%) and 2nd serve (55%) better than Brady. And in the finals, while she didn’t play her best match of the tournament, she did everything just slightly better than Brady. Her passing-of-the-torch victory over the aforementioned Serena Williams in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-4 cemented her as the favourite in the final regardless of her opponent. Being ready for Su-Wei’s different brand of tennis can be difficult, as she was able to slice and dice her way through the first four rounds of the tournament but couldn’t find her way past Osaka. Her straight sets victories against tricky veteran Su-Wei Hsieh 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals showed how prepared she was for the match. It was eerily reminiscent of two great escapes made by Serena in majors past: her 2009 semifinal win (and match of the year) at Wimbledon against Elena Dementiava – 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6, saving a match point at 4-5 in the final set, as well as her 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 triumph over Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the 2003 Australian Open – saving match points down 2-5 in the 3rd and reeling off the last six games of the match. Down 3-5 in the final set, she staved off two match points and then played clean tennis, winning the last four games on the trot to close out the comeback 4-6, 6-4. With some frustration setting in, Osaka reached back into her bag of tricks and let out a little emotion, which allowed her to play more “instinct-based tennis” to level the match and take it to a deciding set. Having never player before, Muguruza used a run of 8 games in 10 to go up a set and a break in the 2nd set. The two power players did not disappoint. A clash with two-time major winner and 2020 Australian Open finalist, Garbine Muguruza, in the 4th round certainly had popcorn tennis written all over it. Osaka’s first three matches were routine, as she only lost 13 games on the way to straight sets victories. With Osaka’s performance these past two weeks, that has officially taken place. But at some point with all great athletes, the torch must be passed. Dispatching Serena Williams, the greatest tennis player of her generation, on the way to two of her major triumphs is certainly a feather in the cap for Osaka, who, along with many other young players, reveres Williams. Only Roger Federer and Monica Seles have started out their major careers with such gusto – Federer winning his first seven finals and Seles taking her first six. Once she makes it to the business end of a major, she’s combined to go an undefeated 12-0 in quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. In defeating Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 and winning the 2021 Australian Open, she has now won all four of her Grand Slam Finals appearances.
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